I'm new in photography, and I've seen many pictures here on Caedes with that soft water look, at first I thought it was somehow edited on the computer, but then I heard something about the shutter speed. I don't know what this is or if I even have access to it on my camera. I have a Konica Minolta Z10 digital camera. Is the option of shutter speed only available on those very expensive film cameras? or something of that sort? Lol not sure if it's a stupid question, I wish I would've asked it earlier though, i've been on Caedes for a while ^_^

The term I use for that type of photography is "Time lapse". Not sure if that is technically correct. It involves, as you say, leaving the shutter open for an extended period of time to acheive a "soft" effect on running water. This technique is also used to acheive those shots of traffic at night showing the paths of the headlights/taillights. You need to be able to control the shutter speed to acheive this, most automatic cameras won't have this option. The manual should make it clear if your camera does.

Sam, the term time lapse is more commonly found in video where a series of stills are taken over long periods of time. The most common of these time lapse results is probably a clip of a flower blooming which could take several days but can be reduced to 5 seconds.

Any camera can be manipulated to get a longer exposure. The key is to reduce the amount of light that enters through the lens either by filters in front of the lens or by decreasing the aperture or ISO. Oh, and of course shooting in darker conditions. Cristina your camera has full capabilities to manipulate the exposure time. If you set your camera to aperture priority and decrease your aperture size (higher number) your shutter will compensate for the loss of light by staying open longer, thereby making objects that move a blur. Have fun with it....some very neat effects can be done this way:-)

and ... you can make traffic disappear on the freeway ... in broad daylight

This Konica Minolta Z10??

If so .. you have 15 seconds (or 30 seconds on Bulb, .. I wish my camera had bulb .. bulb and I were friends on my old camera) .. you could remove the water from the creek by truckload with 15 seconds .. even with union breaks

depending on how much water flow is evident .. a quarter of a second or maybe a half a second will be plenty .. as compared to 1/1000th of a second normally used by the camera (light conditions vary of course scene to scene)

Next .. put your camera on a TRIPOD

If any of you are interested in Video Time-Lapse as Darryl mentioned.. go to your video store and ask for the early eighties film koyaanisqatsi (pronounced = koyaanisqatsi) .. a Hopi Indian word meaning Life out of balance ... I was thinking it was an early George Lucas film .. but, no dice

Ive seen this site.. it has some great photos...

Yup Keith, that's the one =)
Thanks so much for your comments, I'll try to figure out if it can work, hopefully you guys are right. I'll make sure to read the manual again, last time I read it was when I first started taking photos and I had no clue what anything meant in there. Thanks again for your advice, it helped a lot.

Well .. I'm in the same boat you are .. I find my camera to be frustrating when it comes to controlling what it does

when my gang and I broke into the secret government building and they told me Expressly .. "NO FLASH" and I, of course, nodded my head in agreement.. and then my flash DID go off .. well. I looked pretty silly ..

according to the sheet you have aperature priority (you set the aperature, based on the depth of field you need, the camera sets the shutter) .. AND .. shutter priority (you set the shutter depending on your need to STOP action, your camera sets the aperature

These settings should be easily available to you, quickly. BULB, on the other hand, will probably be something you will have to fiddle with. This is a digital camera's attempt to simulate the cable-release gizmo on FILM cameras and, maybe, the more expensive Digital Cameras .. a cable release was a "wire" that you could set to lock the button down for as long as you wanted Check This - 3.5 hours

Since your camera is digital ... you can experiment to your heart's content because you have no film and developing costs

Water
Car Lights
Ferris wheels at the fair
Fireworks

oh ... you live in Canada .. tape a light to a moose's tail and say "shoo"

and POST your successes

LOL keith, thanks ;) i'll try that next time I see a moose (which hasn't even been once since i've lived here) hehe