capturing light reflecting off water?

adamseye · Jun 7, 2011

Hey,

I really want to capture pictures of the light reflecting off slightly moving water like this http://www.booooooom.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/06/adriacanameras_06.jpg

Could I put a slow shutter speed and high ISO?

Vtec44 · Jun 7, 2011

If the water is moving I'd think slow shutter speed would cause the image to appear soft/blurry. I'm curious to see what others have to say.

Kerbouchard · Jun 7, 2011

You will want to use the lowest ISO possible, a tripod, a small aperture(f/13 or smaller), and see what shutter speed you are getting. If it is slower than 1/15th of a second, you should be alright. If not, you will have to go to a smaller aperture or invest in some neutral density filters.

That image you linked isn't very complicated, so my guess is a tripod and aperture priority at f/13 at base ISO with a little positive exposure compensation should yield almost identical results.

And to answer your question, a slow shutter speed and high ISO would probably get you a completely white frame in conditions like that...so, no.

molested_cow · Jun 7, 2011

Takes the right angle of reflection plus the right kind of ripple to get that. It's not about low shutter speed.

Bitter Jeweler · Jun 7, 2011

That's relatively bright. You wouldn't need high ISO.
Meter for the rocks in the water, and go from there.

Josh66 · Jun 7, 2011

On that particular picture, you can still see the ripples in the water - so the shutter speed had to be fairly fast. Slow shutter speed and the water would just be a blur, and the reflections would probably just be a bright spot on the water.

That shot is more about finding the right angles to give you the reflection than anything else, like molested_cow said.

Kerbouchard · Jun 7, 2011

O|||||||O said:
On that particular picture, you can still see the ripples in the water - so the shutter speed had to be fairly fast. Slow shutter speed and the water would just be a blur, and the reflections would probably just be a bright spot on the water.

That shot is more about finding the right angles to give you the reflection than anything else, like molested_cow said.

On that particular picture, my guess is somebody took a snap in automatic. It's over exposed, lacks contrast, suffers from lens flare, has no subject, and doesn't seem to have any sort of planned composition.

Actually, the only thing it accomplished was to produce reflections on the water that the OP likes.

I guess I was trying to tell the OP how I thought the image could have been interesting, instead of how to duplicate the exact shot.

In any case, to duplicate that exact shot, put your camera in P mode(it stands for professional) set your exposure compensation to +2, walk to a river around 4 p.m., look for reflections in the water, point your camera at it and push the button near the top being careful not to have any actual subject in the picture.

Josh66 · Jun 7, 2011

Kerbouchard said:
On that particular picture, my guess is somebody took a snap in automatic.

Yeah, probably.

I agree that what you said would make a better photo, but at the same time it wouldn't 'capture the reflection' as well...

:er:

But, If you really wanted to play around with that reflection, you could put a cross screen filter on the lens...