I've finally taken the plunge and bought a DSLR. I got the Canon EOS 400D as they've just started the new cashback offers ^_^

What really interests me at the moment is moving water images, I love taking pictures of fountains, waterfalls etc and playing with the shutter speed. I think I'm doing something wrong though. On Auto (ie point and shoot) the colours are balanced, and the photo looks good. However when I switch my canon on 'tv' mode and increase the shutter time to make the water look ribbony the photo goes blue. This happens as soon as I switch it onto TV mode... what am I doing wrong?!

I've attached two photos:
http://s269.photobucket.com/albums/jj70/hookedup/mine/?action=view&current=autosettings.jpg <-- this is with auto settings
http://s269.photobucket.com/albums/jj70/hookedup/mine/?action=view&current=tvmodeopenshutter.jpg <-- this is with the shutter open 1/5.

Please help... getting a bit frustrated with this.

As an aside, is there anyway I can tidy the picture up in photoshop and rebalance the colour? I've got a fair few like that and would like to fix them.

Thanks

best make that photobucket private :blush:

Two things immediately spring to mind:

You need to use a tripod or other support to prevent camera shake a slower shutter speeds

The blue cast on the second image appears to be due to a white balance issue, what white balance did you use? Looks like it may have been set to tungsten, rather than auto, daylight or cloud

Two things immediately spring to mind:

You need to use a tripod or other support to prevent camera shake a slower shutter speeds

The blue cast on the second image appears to be due to a white balance issue, what white balance did you use? Looks like it may have been set to tungsten, rather than auto, daylight or cloud

I need to buy the tripod next. The rest of the photos I took balanced on rocks etc, but that was the one I had to best illustrated the colour difference. It should be set to be on auto white balance, but I'll have to double check that.

Thanks

Im far from been a expert on photography but a GrinderBloke as pointed out use a tripod for slow shutter speeds and i would also suggest shooting your pics in RAW as you can alter white balance, exposure ect ect. ( something you cant do if you shoot in JPEG )

Also you should buy the current April issue of Digital SLR Photography as it has a beginners guide to shutter speeds.

White Balance was set to Tungston... feel like a prat ^_^

Thanks GrinderBloke, and dvp82. I'll get that (:

You may wanna have a look at this tutorial (http://digital-photography-school.com/blog/waterfall-digital-photography/) - some useful pointers there :)

You may wanna have a look at this tutorial (http://digital-photography-school.com/blog/waterfall-digital-photography/) - some useful pointers there :)

Thanks... that looks really useful.

I definately need a tripod, that's one of my next purchases. I'm not sure what to go for though. I need something that's small enough to be portable but robust enough for the camera. I'm going to New Zealand in the Summer, so whatever I buy I have to be able to take on the plan, so it ideally needs to collapse to a fairly small size.

Budget isn't that much of an issue one I get paid next week, but I don't want to be spending too much on a tripod as I've just bought a polarizing filter and a UV filter >_<

You may wanna consider a GorillaPod (http://www.joby.com/uk/products/gorillapod/). Marvelous little creatures :P

You may wanna consider a GorillaPod (http://www.joby.com/uk/products/gorillapod/). Marvelous little creatures :P

That looks awesome... is there a UK distributor or do I have to buy from their site?

Joby sell it on Amazon: http://www.amazon.co.uk/Joby-GP2-01P-Gorillapod-SLR/dp/B000HAVVFG/ref=pd_sbs_ce_title_1

They are on Amazon and others - the SLR ZOOM is 26 quid with free postage on Amazon.co.uk (http://www.amazon.co.uk/Joby-GP3-01EN-Gorillapod-SLR-Zoom/dp/B000KFRSG4/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=electronics&qid=1206299059&sr=8-1)

Cant believe they wanna flog them for 45 on the Joby and Warehouseexpress sites !

EDIT : drat I typed too slow. SLR ZOOM version is better than normal SLR one as can take more weight - useful when strapping on flashes and the like...

They are on Amazon and others - the SLR ZOOM is 26 quid with free postage on Amazon.co.uk (http://www.amazon.co.uk/Joby-GP3-01EN-Gorillapod-SLR-Zoom/dp/B000KFRSG4/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=electronics&qid=1206299059&sr=8-1)

Cant believe they wanna flog them for 45 on the Joby and Warehouseexpress sites !

EDIT : drat I typed too slow. SLR ZOOM version is better than normal SLR one as can take more weight - useful when strapping on flashes and the like...

Thanks Grissom. I'll add one of those to my basket and buy it next week once I'm paid (:

Cool, just ordered myself one ! Only £29.23 including first class delivery (last free delivery item I ordered on Amazon was left in my wheelie bin by the Home Delivery company - never again !)

Wont hold my 70-200 lens (body is 1.7 KG and lens a bit more than 1.7kg - so its over the 3kg limit for the pod). But will be fab for my wide angle and also Macro shots :)

Will be good to see your next batch of waterfalls etc when you're all tooled up :)

Okay, so I've been back this morning. Shot in RAW so I could adjust the photos in photoshop after, and I also had the white balance set correctly!

Here's two of the photos:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/hook85/2357541297/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/hook85/2357541279/

I think the second is my favourite! (:

Yeah nice and silky :)

I like the second one, the water has great quality. Did you use any filters?

I like the second one, the water has great quality. Did you use any filters?

No.. I've ordered a polarizing filter and a UV filter from somebody on ebay (hkdirect?!) that was recommended in a thread on here somewhere. I want to go back and reshoot when they arrive as the tutorial Grissom linked to recommended using a polarizer. Some of the images were overexposed as the sun came out towards the end of my 'shoot' so it was good job I shot in Raw.

I can't wait for my gorillapod to arrive either, there were lots of shots I wanted to try but couldn't because I didn't have anywhere to rest my camera. It's great at Lumsdale, can't believe I was working at the school there before Christmas and had no idea that little place existed. Would have eaten my lunch there everyday! (:

They are on Amazon and others - the SLR ZOOM is 26 quid with free postage on Amazon.co.uk (http://www.amazon.co.uk/Joby-GP3-01EN-Gorillapod-SLR-Zoom/dp/B000KFRSG4/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=electronics&qid=1206299059&sr=8-1)

Cant believe they wanna flog them for 45 on the Joby and Warehouseexpress sites !

EDIT : drat I typed too slow. SLR ZOOM version is better than normal SLR one as can take more weight - useful when strapping on flashes and the like...

My SLR Zoom has just arrived Grissom. It's great... need to go and get a tripod head and find some sunshine ^_^

My SLR Zoom has just arrived Grissom. It's great...

Mine is at the delivery depot :( Will go pick it up on Saturday :)

Mine is at the delivery depot :( Will go pick it up on Saturday :)

It was lucky I was in this afternoon! Went to Jessops to try and get a tripod head, and they were useless, so gave up and went to Harrisons Cameras on London Road. They were really helpful, and gave some great advice. :thumbsup:

Im far from been a expert on photography but a GrinderBloke as pointed out use a tripod for slow shutter speeds and i would also suggest shooting your pics in RAW as you can alter white balance, exposure ect ect. ( something you cant do if you shoot in JPEG )

Also you should buy the current April issue of Digital SLR Photography as it has a beginners guide to shutter speeds.

Not quite true - if you have Photoshop CS3 (and I believe it works in CS2 but not 100% sure), go to the Adobe bridge, find the thumbnail of the image (this can be RAW, jpg, tiff etc), right click the thumbnail and choose "Open In Camera Raw" - you then have the white balance, noise reduction, lens correction etc in ACR, and can then open in Photoshop as normal