Photographing moving water

We have all seen those amazing, silky beach scenes, or smooth white waterfalls, cascading down a rock face. They look very professional and difficult to shoot, but it’s actually quite simple to shoot moving water. The trick is to find the right water to shoot and practice your technique.

The basic foundation for successful flowing water images, especially waterfalls, is choosing the right location for the shot. Waterfalls are notoriously difficult to access, because they are mainly found in rugged terrain. Be careful when choosing your location; by definition, they are surrounded by wet, slippery vegetation and often with loose stones, or unstable ground. It’s much better to approach a waterfall from below than from above; look for a route down near the water. Locations surrounded by trees, can be very dark, so by watching the light, you may find there is a perfect time for shooting.

To start with, to be truly creative you will need to move away from using your automatic camera settings. Whilst the camera will do its best to capture what it thinks you want, it is possible that it will choose a fast shutter speed in order to “freeze” the movement. If that’s what you want to depict, then OK. But the more dramatic pictures are those where water motion is evident, and the rest of the picture is still.

A slow shutter speed will need to be chosen to show the motion of the water. The slower your shutter speed the greater the motion captured. After a shot, it is a good idea to immediately check the results on your LCD screen. Then adjust, to a slower or faster shutter speed, until you get the shot you want. To achieve best results, will require a shutter speed of at least 1/15 of a second, or probably longer. Truly smooth water should be captured if you leave the shutter open for over a second.

Using a slow shutter speed will mean that your camera needs to be absolutely still to avoid camera shake ruining the picture. The best way to establish a stable platform is to use a sturdy tripod. Another trick is to add a remote shutter release, giving you the greatest chance of eliminating camera movement during your shot. Also, set your ISO to about 100, with a small aperture of around f/11 or f16. A small aperture results in the slowest possible shutter speed for the ISO and light conditions.

The following shots from the same location, show the same image, taken at progressively longer exposure times. You can clearly see the difference between the first 'frozen' image to the last 'flowing' image.

Remember, experiment freely with shutter speeds, reviewing each attempt on your camera's LCD until you find the look you want. Adjust aperture and ISO as necessary to get the optimal shutter speed and experiment with neutral density and polarizer filters, if you need longer exposure times. 

A polarizer filter is also useful for removing distracting glare from wet rocks and foliage, which will increase contrast and color saturation in your photos. 

A sturdy tripod, or large bean bag is an absolute necessity when using long exposures.

If you enjoy reading my blog, please share it with friends on facebook etc.