Tips > Your Lens Needs Sunglasses

Two Problems

There are two things you can't do in the sun:

1) You can't blur motion.

In the sun, at ISO 100, your exposure would be about 1/60th of a second at f/22.

If you shift the shutter speed to 1/15th of a second, there's too much light.

Your camera will blink Hi in the viewfinder.

2) You can't blur the background.

Again, in the sun, at ISO 100, your exposure would be about 1/60th of a second at f/22.

At f/22, there's lots of depth-of-field.

If want less depth-of-field, and shift the lens opening to f/4, there's too much light.

Your camera will blink Hi in the viewfinder.

Solution

Block some of the light that's entering your lens.

Get a 3-stop neutral density filter.

The filter is like putting sunglasses on your camera.

Less Depth-of-field

In the sun, at ISO 100, with the filter, your exposure will be about 1/500th at f/4.

Slow Shutter Speeds

In the sun, at ISO 100, with the filter, your exposure will be about 1/15th of a second at f/22.

You can now blur water going over a waterfall.

More

Neutral density filters are also called ND filters.

A 3-stop neutral density filter is also designated by .9 or 8X.

They cost about $30.