shutter speed problem

[brankulo]

i recently purchased my first dslr camera and i was following this guide http://web.canon.jp/imaging/enjoydslr/p_3_004.htmlto make some shots. it is basically setting up shutter speed to slow and get the motion of subject. however if i set my shutter speed in TV mode to 1" i always get my pictures almost white, unlike it is shown in guide. any tips what am i doing wrong?

[photophorous]

i recently purchased my first dslr camera and i was following this guide http://web.canon.jp/imaging/enjoydslr/p_3_004.htmlto make some shots. it is basically setting up shutter speed to slow and get the motion of subject. however if i set my shutter speed in TV mode to 1" i always get my pictures almost white, unlike it is shown in guide. any tips what am i doing wrong?

It sounds like over exposure. What kind of lighting conditions are you doing this in and what ISO is your camera set to?

When you're using TV mode, you're setting the shutter speed and the camera is setting the aperture based on how much light the meter is reading. If there is a lot of light, with a 1 second exposure, the camera will stop down the lens so it has a small aperture to prevent over exposure. If the light is bright enough, the camera won't be able to close the aperture small enough to prevent over exposure. The higher your ISO is set to, the more likely this is to happen.

Try setting the ISO as low as it goes (probably 100). If that's not enough you will have to use a faster shutter speed, move to somewhere the light isn't as bright, or use a nuetral density filter on your lens to block out some of the light.

Hope this helps.

Paul

[another view]

Sounds like it's so far overexposed that there isn't any visible image. If you were in manual mode, when you adjust your shutter speed you need to compensate by also adjusting the aperture in the other direction (letting in more light due to long shutter speed, use a smaller aperture to let less light in for proper exposure); basically it's an equation. Tv is an automatic mode, so there should have been some sort of warning telling you that it would be overexposed.

See this article about exposure.

[brankulo]

my sensitivity is set as low as possible that is 200 with this camera. it was really sunny day and yes there was a warning, number blinking next to my shutter speed number. i tried to set shutter to 1" and close aperture as much as possible in M mode, however there is still too much light in my picture. can this kind of pictures be done only in lower light conditions without filters or is there a way to se exposure so it automatically underexposure picture? thanks

[photophorous]

my sensitivity is set as low as possible that is 200 with this camera. it was really sunny day and yes there was a warning, number blinking next to my shutter speed number. i tried to set shutter to 1" and close aperture as much as possible in M mode, however there is still too much light in my picture. can this kind of pictures be done only in lower light conditions without filters or is there a way to se exposure so it automatically underexposure picture? thanks

A 1 second exposure is very long for a sunny day at 200 ISO. You have reached the limits of your camera and lens. Let us know why you are trying to use such a long shutter speed, and we can probably give you better advice.

[another view]

can this kind of pictures be done only in lower light conditions without filters or is there a way to se exposure so it automatically underexposure picture?

I think you're looking for correct exposure which is a lot less exposure, not underexposure. But yes, you need either lower light conditions or a neutral density filter. Both of these will give you less light to work with, so you can use longer shutter speeds. The results from using one or the other will be very different, so experiment a lot.

Note that neutral density filters come in different amounts like 2x, 4x. The higher the number, the darker the filter. These two are common but there are some that are a lot higher. 2x is two stops darker, which won't do much for you if you're trying to get a one second shutter speed at ISO200.

What is the minimum aperture setting on your camera? There's a formula called "sunny 16" that you can use to figure out (or at least estimate) your exposure. Let me know the aperture and I'll show you how that works.

[brankulo]

the reason i am using 1" speed is because of the guide i found on web. i have posted link to it in my first post. they are using 1" shutter speed and result looks ok. i just wanted to achieve similar effect. but i guess the guide is not that good as they tell you one thing but they dont mention 10 others that are also important. fot my camera specs see this link http://www.pentaximaging.com/product...n--digital_slr

so as i understan so far if i was to use 1" shutter speed or longer without using filter it would have to be a cloudy day or basically less light?
thanks

[photophorous]

the reason i am using 1" speed is because of the guide i found on web. i have posted link to it in my first post. they are using 1" shutter speed and result looks ok. i just wanted to achieve similar effect. but i guess the guide is not that good as they tell you one thing but they dont mention 10 others that are also important. fot my camera specs see this link http://www.pentaximaging.com/product...n--digital_slr

so as i understan so far if i was to use 1" shutter speed or longer without using filter it would have to be a cloudy day or basically less light?
thanks

Oh, I see the blurry flower picture now. I suspect they used a nuetral density filter for that shot, but it could also be done early in the morning or late in the evening. A cloudy day is probably not dark enough at 200 ISO. In order for the flowers to blur like that, it will have to be windy too.

There's nothing wrong with your camera. It has typical specs. The article just doesn't tell you everything. I suggest you try again late in the evening...probably after the sun sets.

Good luck!

[brankulo]

i just did some research and foud out that nd filter is quite usefull think. what do i need to look on when i want to buy one. will any it fit my camera or they come in different sizes/mounting ways? also what number of nd filter would be good for start.
thanks

[Xia_Ke]

They are handy and fun to play with. I use Cokin P-Series filters right now and have the ND2 153 and ND4 154 filters. Click here for their website. All kinds of fun filters to play with Don't forget a good stable tripod too, especially for long exposures in windy conditions.

[another view]

Filters other than the Cokin type come in a specific diameter (49mm, 77mm, etc) to fit onto the front of your lens or lenses. Check the lens to see what diameter you need. If you have more than one lens and they have different diameters you can either buy one of each size, the larger size only with a step-up adapter ring (or is it step-down?), or go with the Cokin system and just get the mounting rings for the sizes you need.

Nothing wrong with your camera; it's a limitation of photography. Any camera will overexpose if you shoot in bright sun for one second and can't stop down far enough for proper exposure.

ISO + shutter speed + aperture = exposure. It's an equation - change one value, and to keep the same results you'll have to change another value to compensate for it. For example, if you're at ISO200, f16 and 1/250 which should be pretty close to mid-day sun and you change the shutter speed to one second without changing any of the other settings to compensate for that long exposure, you'll give the sensor so much light that it can't record anything. Going from 1/250 to one second is adding eight stops of light. Even negative film which is more tolerant of overexposure than digital can't handle anywhere near that. Maybe three stops if you're lucky but with digital to really be right you need to be within one stop. That's the idea behind the neutral density filter - it's another way of blocking how much light gets to the digital sensor.