{"id":3764,"date":"2011-06-22T08:00:25","date_gmt":"2011-06-22T13:00:25","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/cesardphoto.com\/blog\/?p=3764"},"modified":"2011-06-22T08:00:25","modified_gmt":"2011-06-22T13:00:25","slug":"lets-take-pictures-of-water-using-long-exposures","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cesardphoto.com\/blog\/2011\/06\/lets-take-pictures-of-water-using-long-exposures\/","title":{"rendered":"Let’s Take Pictures of Water Using Long Exposures…"},"content":{"rendered":"

You’ve\u00a0probably seen photos of streams or waterfalls in which the water looked very silky and wondered, \u201cHow did they do that?\u201d Well, it\u2019s easy!<\/p>\n

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The process employed to get that silky effect is called motion rendition<\/strong>. If you set your camera with a fast shutter speed, say 1\/125 to 1\/4,000 of a second, you will usually stop motion<\/strong><\/em>. By contrast, if you set it with a slow shutter speed like 1\/4 of a second or maybe 1\/8 or 1\/15 of a second, anything moving very fast will appear blurred in the resulting image. If you photograph moving water at speeds from two to eight seconds you will get very blurred or silky looking water.<\/p>\n

Since no one can handhold a camera steady at shutter speeds that slow, you will need to use a tripod<\/strong>. Because you\u2019ll be using a slow shutter speed, you\u2019ll want to compensate by selecting a small aperture like f\/22 or f\/16<\/strong> to get the maximum amount of depth of field (sharpness from the front to the back of your image).<\/p>\n

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<\/a>Water and rocks often reflect light as glare and adding a polarizing filter will help reduce reflections and deepen the colors. The polarizer will also reduce your exposure by one and a half to two stops which will allow for even slower shutter speeds.<\/p>\n

Here\u2019s how I do it, step by step.<\/p>\n