Soft Waters: Shutter Speed Manipulation

My sweetheart and I go to watch the sunrise quite often.  I took this picture the last time we went, and I just finished working with it.  It was an experiment.  I slowed down the shutter speed to the slowest setting I thought of, even though the camera's light meter was totally against it.  To no surprise, the picture was totally blown up.  It was all white.  I left it like that and continued working on my sunrise photography session.  You can visit my store to see the really good ones I took that morning.

The shutter's speed is one of the many settings you can manipulate to achieve a specific look.  In this case, I was looking for a soft brush effect in the water.  Since the shutter speed was at low speed, it allows the effect of time to be captured in the picture.  Think of it as the blinking of the eye.  The slower you open and close the eyelid, the more information you can capture from a scene.  The same thing happens with the camera.

I really like the look of this picture.  The cold tones and the soft water makes for a very soothing image.