Blurred water motion

[Hill202]

I want to photograph a waterfall near my home. I have seen some photos here where the water movement has a smooth look. I have been playing around with shutter speed. Am I getting close?

Thanks for any tips

 

[Deadeye008]

In order to get the smooth water effect you will need to shoot in either low light or use an neutral density filter so that you can use a slower shutter speed as you stated. You will also need a tripod. A remote shutter will come in handy also. This pic was taken with an nd filter and a 3 sec shutter.

 

[Richard]

Are you using a point and shoot or a SLR camera?

 

[Hill202]

Its a D40.

 

[Big Mike]

That's right, you need to use a long shutter speed, which may be hard to do in bright light, so that's where a neutral density filter will help. Also, if you don't use a tripod (or something to hold the camera)...everything will be blurry, not just the water. So use a tripod and a remote (or the self timer).

For this shot, I used a circular polarizer, and two ND 4 filters. I believe the shutter speed was over 20 seconds.

 

[Sw1tchFX]

Are you using a point and shoot or a SLR camera?

doesn't matter if you can manually set your shutter speed.

 

[Hill202]

Here's my first attempt, there are some focus issues and perhaps too slow of a shutter speed, but its a start.

Thanks for the tips

 

[Big Mike]

Not bad, it could maybe use a little work, but it's a good start.

One thing that you have to watch for...is 'white water'. The spots that are too turbulent will just turn into overexposed white blobs. Sometimes, there isn't much you can do about that...but you can get different effects with different shutter speeds.

 

[Hill202]

Ok here's another, this time with self timer which made a big difference..

That was a valuable tip, thanks

 

[Big Mike]

Excellent shot, well done.

 

[Iron Flatline]

Yar, that's getting a lot better. Good work!

 

[Hill202]

Thanks for the comments. You guys really know your stuff!! I look forward to learning more.

 

[Deadeye008]

The second shot looks nice. Great work.

 

[Mike Jordan]

One trick that comes in handy when shooting waterfalls or running water and you are shooting at slow speeds (I like 4 to 6 seconds myself) is to take 2 or more shots at different exposures. You really need to use a tripod for the best effect, but I've done it a number of times handheld. The way I do it is to take a shot at the metered exposure reading. Then I use my exposure compensation wheel to dial in 1 stop more for a 1 stop under exposed compared to the meter. Then I turn the wheel 2 stops less... one back to the meter reading and one more to take it 1 stop over exposed. If the contrast between the highlights and shadows are fairly wide, I might take a couple more either way just to be sure I cover the whole sprectrum of light.

I then take these images and take the one with the best exposure for the hightlights, the one best exposed for the shadows and the one best for the midtones and merge them together. I use a action that does the merging for me but you can do it in Photoshop as well. You can do this for non-water scenes as well and can make a lot of difference in the final image.

Mike