a1 Photo Tips

Water in all forms is always a fascinating subject for making those great pictures. There is everything from pools with still water making intriguing reflections on the surface, to raging waterfalls with torrents of splashing water all over the place.

Today, I am going to focus on how to render moving water for best effect. Take for instance the magnificent shot of a Japanese waterfall shown here. Look closely - how was it actually done? Well, the classic way of interpreting moving water in a still image is to render it with motion blur. This makes sense since in this case the water is moving quite fast and to our naked eye it tends to appear that way also - as a blur. (Well, as a child I could stand staring at falling water for a long time, and found that by fixing my gaze at a certain spray of water as it fell, I could create an illusion of some kind of slow-motion movement. But it took an effort to do this!)

Here, the motion blur method was used perfectly. What it means is that you need a really long exposure time - so long it is usually necessary to have the camera on a tripod, or some other solid support. Otherwise, everything in the picture will be blurry which won’t look right at all - since we know that rocks and trees usually don’t move!

You may need to experiment a little, but try exposure times of around 1 or 2 seconds for starters. (Shorter exposure times may also give good results, as in the picture of an Icelandic waterfall here below.) The problem you may run into then is that on a sunny day the image is likely to become overexposed. Try to compensate by using the smallest aperture possible, and the lowest ISO-setting also. If even that isn’t enough, you will have to put some type of filter in front of the camera lens which reduces the amount of light that gets into the camera. Try for instance a polarizing filter. But that may not be enough. Then you must use a neutral-grey filter. Or if all else fails - use your sunglasses!

Another way of dealing with the overexposure problem is to choose a time of day when the light is weak. Actually, I recommend that since the quality of the light will likely be better then also. And what do I mean by “quality”? I mean that the light will be softer, more gentle, with no harsh shadows. Look again at the picture above, note how soft the light is there. This focuses the interest on the moving water.

Now a few words on composition: I have found that a picture of a waterfall must include the bottom part, where the water lands, to look “right”. That is my opinion, try it and see if you agree. (With a stream it is different, since it is a continous flow.) Also, make sure you get the picture “straight”, ie. so that a horizon line would be shown as perfectly horizontal. We know how water behaves, and if it looks like it isn’t falling as it naturally would, then the whole picture looks “wrong”.

AND as always: make sure there are no distracting elements in the picture. Avoid including things like ugly piles of debris etc. The moving water should dominate, framed by natural features that serve a subordinate role.

OK, there are other sources of moving water than waterfalls - for instance fountains. And pretty much the same advice applies here also: if you want to create a feeling of moving water, use a very slow shutter speed to render the falling water with motion blur.

However, in some cases it may be a good idea to try the opposite: freeze the motion using a fast shutter speed. It all depends on the character of the water - if it is a very strong jet of water it may create an interesting effect to render it hanging in mid-air like a water sculpture!

I feel water is a subject I could write much more about. In some future photo tips I may discuss how to take pictures of reflections in pools, or breaking ocean waves… or whatever.

Photo Credits: Japanese waterfall by joka2000; Icelandic waterfall by twinxamot; fountain by extranoise.