I have a Olympus C750 and have been trying to take photos with a longer shutter speed. I think it can do a max of 1sec manually but 16sec on its own. I have 2 questions, does anyone know how to extend the shutter speed longer than the 1sec manually, and when I do lengthen the shutter speed too much light gets in and my pictures come out bright white.

To use the longer shutter speeds, you need to place the camera on full manual mode. The shutter prority mode only allows 1-1/1000 sec. In full manual you can get the full range from 16-1/1000 sec. Look to your manual for specifics on how to change it. If you are trying to catch motion blur you will need ND (neutral density) filters in front of your lens to reduce the amount of light.

Go to www.dpreview.com and see if they have a forum for your camera. If the answer isn't already there you could post the question, I did this for my Nikon and had three specific responses in a few hours.