Setting Your Shutter Speed at Sunset

Sunset Cliffs
San Diego, CA United States


Canon 5D Mark II
Focal Legnth 75
Aperture 22
Shutter 2.5 sec.
ISO 50

For this shot I used a relatively slow shutter of 2.5 seconds to record the waves as they washed over the rocks, it created a pleasant flowing effect. This can be achieved with a shutter of a 1/2 second or more, but it yields more of a streaming effect with shutters in excess of a few seconds.

You may see many photographers doing this with subjects such as waterfalls.  A problem is presented with that however.

The lighting during the daytime is much higher which restricts some of the functionally of the camera.  Even with using all of your manual adjustment of the ISO and Aperture you are still unlikely to be able to set the shutter to a low enough speed by stepping down to the cameras limits in regards to the amount of light it lets in.

The first thing you would want to do is to bring the ISO the the lowest possible level.  For the 5D Mark II the lowest level is ISO 50, while many other Canons may have an ISO of 100, or even 200.  This will give you smoother pictures anyways, and I would recommend always setting your camera to the lowest number possible while not sacrificing depth of field (Aperture) or shutter.

Then if bring the aperture to the highest possible number (which results in the smallest possible opening to let light in).  With certain lenses you may be able to get down to F32.  Sometimes you still may be unable to achieve light levels low enough to justify such a slow shutter.  Often times it is difficult to get shots of anything slower than 1/2 second.

This is where the neutral density filter comes in.  All this filter does is limit the amount of light that comes in.  It's only purpose is to limit the amount of light that can enter through the lens, typically it is one F stop.  If the picture still isn't dark enough you can add multiple filters, or perhaps something with much heavier dampening such as a 10 stop filter.