Flowing, Cotton Candy Effect without Overexposure

A photographer emailed me today with a great question. It's about overexposure when using a long shutter speed to create the cotton candy effect. He is definitely not alone... over the years, I have heard this question often. He said:

"In pg 72-73 of your book, you create a cotton candy effect with a stream. I tried to copy this effect but when I went over a 1 second shutter speed, everything was blown out. How did you get 15 seconds shutter speed and still keep everything looking the same."

The trick is that you need to either:

a) shoot when the light level is very low, or

b) use what's called a neutral density filter on your lens.

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With your shutter open for all that time, too much light is coming in. You need to do something to have less light entering the camera.

So you can shoot in low-light like just after sunset, you can turn to a higher f number such as f/22, or you can put a dark filter on your lens (kind of like sunglasses for your camera).

I often shoot with the ND filter or my polarizer (as it also blocks out light). Such filters give you more control over when you can create these "cotton candy" water effects.

Try this and I think you'll find that you can both get the flowing water effect and keep the image from overexposing.

Comments

[Nancy Shevitz]

I have a friend who takes digital photos that have hot spots. He claims nothing is wrong, but my eye sees washed out areas. Can I email them to you for your comments?

Thank you