Tips on photographing water

Hello Friends,

Time for another blog and I thought that today, I will give some tips on photographing moving water.

Have you ever tried to get that perfect waterfall to look silky smooth?

There are a few things that you can do to get this look. First and foremost, you will need a sturdy tripod. Mine is a Stealth CLT 303L carbon fiber tripod. It is a super strong and lightweight tripod. I used to not take my tripod when I went hiking because it was too heavy and cumbersome. This is so light I hardly know I have it.

The second thing you will want is a cable release. There is a way around it, but a cable release is the best option. If you don’t have one you can use the timer on your camera. The thing you want to do is eliminate as much camera shake as you can, and with the cable release, it helps you accomplish that.

The 3rd thing you may want is some neutral density filters. These filters will bring the light down like your sunglasses do on a sunny day. The way to get this look is have a shutter speed so slow that it is open for an extended period of time. (2 to 5 seconds) When it is light outside, you will need the neutral density filters. I set my camera to f22 and then use the light meter to tell me what the shutter speed I can use to get a correct exposure. If if isn’t 2-5 seconds, I take out the filters so I can extend the time. Then I do a final composition with the water flowing through my scene.

After the camera is set and the tripod is sturdy and stable, I take the exposure. If you have a camera that can lock the mirror up before it takes the exposure, that will help eliminate camera shake, too. Finally, I take the images into Lightroom and Photoshop for the final development. There are some “purest”  photographers that think that you shouldn’t have to bring your images into Photoshop to finalize them. To that I say BS. Photoshop today IS the darkroom of yesterday. The image isn’t finished until you finish the process of enhancing , sharpening, color correcting and adding anything, to get that vision of your art, that was in your mind when you took the photograph. (end of rant HaHa)

Anyway, I hope this helps give you an idea of how to take these kind of photographs.

Please feel free to contact me if I can help with any more tips to get your photography looking great!

Thanks!

Tom