Slow Shutter Speed Water Photography

[Leoface]

Hi there, I was just wondering if anyone could give me some help sorting out the settings on my camera (DMC-FZ28). Basically I wanna have a shot at creating some of those amazing smoky water effect shots at some point. I've been able to learn that 5 seconds shutter speed is the standard for getting the effect and anymore is just going to add to the effect. However I was wondering if anyone could tell me what number the F Stop should be at and the ISO?

If you could tell me what your personal preferences are for day shots and night shots it would be greatly appreciated as my camera is fairly new and I'm still learning most of it's functions and settings.

Cheers for any help,

Leo

 

[Big Mike]

Welcome to the forum.

However I was wondering if anyone could tell me what number the F Stop should be at and the ISO?

We can't tell you that because it depends on the light you are shooting in. You just have to figure it out when you are shooting and do what you can with what you have.

Also, you can experiment with all sorts of shutter speeds. 5 seconds might be longer than you need/want sometimes...but I've used shutter speeds as long as 30 seconds for this type of thing.

The basic procedure is this; First, make sure your ISO is set as low as possible. I'd suggest using aperture priority mode and selecting a small aperture (high F number). I'm not sure what the limit of your lens is, but you might as well try the highest F number.
That combination will give you the slowest shutter speed, for the light that you have. It probably won't be as long as 5 seconds unless it's rather dim outside. You can't really increase the shutter speed any more, because that would just overexpose the image (because the other variables are maxed out). So the next thing you can do to get a longer shutter speed, would be to use a filter to block some of the light. The filters for this are called ND (neutral density). You could also use a circular polarizing filter, which is a handy filter to have, anytime you are shooting outdoors.

Of course, you need to use a tripod and a remote shutter release (or the self timer)

 

[Leoface]

Cheers for that Mike, I'll try and put that info into practice tomorrow and see what I can get.

Thanks,

Leo