Using Shutter Speed to Photograph Water

Posted on by learndigitalphotography in Blog, Digital Photography, Digital Photography Basics, Digital Photography Tips

. Regardless of how swiftly the body of water is moving, the motion can either be frozen or shown as a calm progression, often described as a milky blur. At a shutter speed of 1/125 of a second, water can be frozen. This is great to do this when trying to photograph waves crashing against a rocky coast. However, as you increase the time of the shutter (for example 1/60, 1/30, or 1/15 of a second) you tend to lose definition in the water without the ultimate desired effect. Once you are below 1/8 of a second on the shutter, you can achieve the calm blurring of water. The effectiveness of this practice only increases with longer times.

To photograph an image and freeze water, you can generally meter and shoot. Choose the corresponding aperture to allow a shutter speed at 1/125 of a second or greater. But when photographing water for a blurred effect, often the metered light will not allow us to shoot an exposure longer than 1/4 a second. The best suggestion to remedy the situation is through a circular polarizing filter. Most of these filters can remove at least two stops of light. (That means if the scene called for F22 at 1/15 of a second, adding a polarizing filter to the lens allows the shot to be taken at 1/4 a second.)

Water can often act as a leading line for our eyes. Use it as an element to take a viewer through a photograph from the foreground to the background. Using water such as this can help create simple, clean compositions that are pleasing to the eye.

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5 Responses to “Using Shutter Speed to Photograph Water”

Fernand De Canne 17 December 2007 at 4:53 am #

I thank you very much for the tips you send me.
They are very helpfull to me.

Have a great day.

Best regards from ( very cold ) Belgium,

Fernand
Cecilia 1 January 2008 at 5:58 am #

Thanks very much for the tips. Te one about the circularising filter is most useful as i was given one for Christmas. More tips on the use of this filter would be most welcome.
Happy New Year
Oussama 30 January 2008 at 5:52 pm #

thank you for the tips they are verry helpfull but i want to tell that when decreasing the shutter speed the image will become more exposed to light and thus becomes white if you are shooting in the outdoor any recommendation..
thank you
William 14 February 2008 at 3:39 pm #

Thank you very much for the great tips. They all seem to help me.
Paul A. Hammer 12 March 2008 at 5:38 pm #

Thanks for your info on moving water. It will help me very soon.