Hello everyone, i've been reading this forum for a few weeks now as i bought a DSLR (Canon 400d) my problem is i've been trying to take some slow shutter speed pictures of the sea as we have some lovely rocky beaches here and i want the waves to be blurred, but when i set the camera to TV and set the shutter speed to low, presuming the camera would auto adjust the other settings, i get an over exposed image (almost white in most cases)....Can anyone help with what settings i should use, thanks, Steve

Hi there Steve, sounds like you've got the exposure compensation set to automaticaly overexpose the scene.... make sure in the exposure bar (thingy) that the 'needel' sits in the center (0) to change exposure compensation press down the AV button and scroll the wheel to change it... Hope this helps...

Ah yes DOH just forgot... It's best to set the camera to aperture priority (AV) and set the aperture to something like F22 and then let the shutter speed change accordingly... what happens with shutter priority is even though you can tell it to take a 30 second exposure there's still to much light for it's minimum aperture so no matter how hard it tries it ends up overexposing the scene. Often when the aperture number flashes it is shouting at you saying that you've exceded the max and you then know you need to change things accordingly... hope I'm not confusing you... Cheers, Kai

Thanks loads, both fixed the problem but the second solution seemed the best as it took the guess work out, i'm going to a waterfall tomorow so i will try both out to see the results, thanks again....Steve

Awesome mate! I'm glad I could help ya and look forward to the results... also for the long exposures it might be worth getting a netural density filter to help cut light out and increase exposure times HINT: I find 6/10th of a second to be a pretty good time for moving water shots, it gives good movement but also mantains a fair amount of detail... but best try differnet things till you find what you like Cheers, kai.

Kai is correct regarding the ND filter...even a polarizer will help as it cuts down things by 2 stops or so.  Unless you are shooting in low light conditions (early morning, evening, overcast), the use of these filters will help you get the shutter speed down into the range to give you the water smoothening results you are looking for.

I tend to do things a little differently in these situations....since the shutter speed is the most critical factor in "smoothing" the water, I concentrate on it.  You can shoot in shutter priority, but I prefer to shoot in manual mode.  Set your shutter speed for, as Kai says a half second or so....then check your viewfinder meter to ensure that you are within the bounds of exposure...making sure that you are not over or under exposed.( Remember, the meter is your friend!)  If you are out of the exposure range, you will need to adjust your aperture accordingly to get you back.  If you can't get a small enough aperture at your desired shutter speed, you will need to further cut down light by the use of more ND type filtration.

What is the right shutter speed?....well, there really is no universal answer...it's really a juggling act, it depends on the speed of the water, the desired smoothening effect and, the limitations of exposure. The 6/10 second mentioned by Kai is generally a good place to start, but it may take some playing with different speeds to get what you want.

Last few points....set your ISO speed to the lowest possible and don't forget the tripod!

Have fun!

Thanks on the speed tip too, i was thinking i needed speeds of about 4 seconds or more, i think i'll take the laptop with me then i can try lots of settings and get a good look at the results....I'm very careful of the ISO speeds after taking 100+ shots at 1600 iso by mistake LOL, i'll let you know how i get on tomorow.....thanks, Steve

If you're gonna take your laptop, you might as well shoot tethered by attaching the camera to the laptop via USB and using the EOS Utility to control the settings and such. Lots of pros shoot tethered especially in-studio. Many even praise the idea. Happy shooting.

Some great advice there dont forget the obvious and use a good solid tripod as John suggests, and there is a setting in the menu to reduce noise for slower shutter speeds.. Mirror lock up is also useful..

Let me just add one more detail. Be sure to meter on the water itself. It's easy to slow down the shutter speed by pointing the camera at a dark part of the scene, but if you do that the waterfall will be way overexposed. Been there, done that. :-)

Good luck; I'll be looking forward to the results.