# Pictures come off too bright when taking daylight pictures.



## NielsGade (Jun 24, 2009)

So yeah, I wanted to capture a fountain with a 1 second shutter speed, but even with the ISO to 100 and the exposure to 22 it still comes off white. What can I change to make it darker?


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## PhotoXopher (Jun 24, 2009)

ND filter.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neutral_density_filter

Or wait until the sun is at a better position.


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## damir388 (Jun 24, 2009)

Could you please show us the picture?
And a 1 sec shutter speed is way to long in daylight if you ask me.. weren't you able to do it at a quicker shutter speed?


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## inTempus (Jun 24, 2009)

I would just wait for a cloudy day or as mentioned, go later in the afternoon once dusk starts to settle.


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## Josh220 (Jun 24, 2009)

ND filter, stop-down filter, even a polarizer will help some. You can also adjust your exposure compensation down 1-2 stops, or just go back at a different time of day.


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## musicaleCA (Jun 24, 2009)

Josh220 said:


> You can also adjust your exposure compensation down 1-2 stops, or just go back at a different time of day.



That won't help if he's already setting the lowest ISO and smallest f-stop at his set shutter speed.

1/4 should give you acceptable blur for a fountain, but I'd slap a 3-stop ND filter (oddly called an 8x ND...  ) on there. Just make sure you buy high-quality ND filters, like Hoya, because they really have a potential to degrade IQ quite a bit.


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## NielsGade (Jun 24, 2009)

yay, more stuff to buy


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## musicaleCA (Jun 24, 2009)

Indeed. The other option really is patience, as noted above, which only costs you time.


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## benlonghair (Jun 24, 2009)

Neutral Density filters


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## bigtwinky (Jun 24, 2009)

Curious...why are you taking a 1 sec daylight photo?


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## musicaleCA (Jun 24, 2009)

NielsGade said:


> So yeah, I wanted to capture a *fountain with a 1 second shutter speed*, but even with the ISO to 100 and the exposure to 22 it still comes off white. What can I change to make it darker?



.


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## bigtwinky (Jun 25, 2009)

So flowing water I guess?  I should learn not read threads on an iphone when at a coffee shop haha


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## LarryD (Jun 25, 2009)

It sounds like you are just guessing at the exposure..

If you are at ISO 100, and f-22, then there is only one shutter speed that will give you proper exposure and the/a meter will give you that..  Clearly 1 second is too slow.

As mentioned, the only way to get the exposure at 1 second, is to block the amount of available light........either wait for the sun to go down.... or add the proper ND filter.

However... you really need to understand what the best exposure is before you attempt to arbitrarily change stuff......otherwise, you don't really know what you are changing either from, or to.


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## TamiyaGuy (Jun 25, 2009)

As has been said, 1 second is far too slow for taking any kind of photo in sunlight: I find that about 1/30-1/40 is the longest I can get away with at f/22 (without any filters, in bright sunshine). Some filters, such as polarizers and ND filters, "soak up" light. Polarizers usually use 1-2 stops of light, the equivalent of halving or quartering your shutter speed. ND filters, on the other hand, use up between 1 stop (halving your shutter speed) to 10 stops (capable of making photos in sunlight several minutes long).


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## makenottake (Jun 25, 2009)

I'm new to photography also, but if you're shooting on a digital camera there may be an ND filter setting in the cameras menu. I use a Canon ProShot1 and it has it available when I'm shooting in all manual modes. It's not perfect, but it can help a little when its too bright.


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## NielsGade (Jun 25, 2009)

LarryD said:


> It sounds like you are just guessing at the exposure..


I set it to as high as I could.


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