Amazing long exposures on water

July 31st, 2014
I am very eager to try this effect, but haven't found the right body of water yet. But I wanted to share the interview and photos.
If any of you have done this style before please share tips!

July 31st, 2014
Yeah I would love to do this as well.
August 1st, 2014
I certainly haven't done anything this amazing, but long exposures on water, yes. When you ask for tips … what do you already know? (I don't want to launch into a how-to - as you may well know more than me already!)
August 1st, 2014
1/4 second shutter is often enough. In bright sun without ND filters this will require something like f/29 or narrower and make sure you've turned off auto ISO and have it set fixed at its lowest setting, usually 100. If you have background/foreground that is not flowing water, you'll need a tripod, and with this small an aperture you'll need high quality glass or the shot can turn to mush. ND filters of all shapes and sizes exist to help you out to get slower than this of course.
August 1st, 2014
I'm not a big black and white photographer, but I do quite a lot of long exposure water photography. Here are a few:











The smoothness of the water will determine whether a long exposure tends to go 'glassy' or 'misty', with rougher water appearing misty in a long exposure, and smooth water appearing glassy.

As Frank suggests, you can start to get this effect by using a low ISO and narrow aperture (large f-number), but ideally you need to be looking at exposure times of thirty seconds or more, especially if the water isn't smooth, to get the best effects. Most of my shots range between about 30 seconds and 10 minutes.

To get these shutter speeds, you will either need to shoot late at night/early in the morning (while there is still some light, but when the sun is below the horizon), or use a neutral density (ND) filter, which reduces the light entering the lens. Many of my shots use a 10-stop ND filter, which is completely black to look at, and lets through just 1/1000th of the light that would get through without a filter!

There's loads of discussions on the various types and strengths of ND filters, so if you want to learn more about the filters themselves, searching for 'nd filter' in the box at the top of the page provides some useful information.
August 1st, 2014
@abirkill Beautiful images as always Alexis
August 1st, 2014
Here are a few of mine, I have only started doing this type of photography recently, I bought a cheap graduating filter on Ebay to see how I went I now feel ready to invest in something better.
This was only 1 sec with a filter as water was fairly still, taken at sunset


This was 35 secs at sunrise


4 secs at sunrise


20 secs after the sun had gone down


30 secs


and one during the day 5 secs


August 1st, 2014
August 1st, 2014
Joe
Nothing really to add as Frank and Alexis covered it, just another example with settings (2 second exposure, f/22, ISO 100, 3-stop ND filter):

August 1st, 2014
@aliha I knew that it was a long exposure using a tripod but you know when you try something simple and things come up that you never considered...
For instance it seems a lot of people are using filters on their camera which I didn't consider. But mostly I'm just starting conversation because I'm knew here and I wanted to get to know people lol
August 1st, 2014
@frankhymus This was very helpful, thanks! I don't have a ND filter so I was wondering if I would have to pick one up I or to do this (I know they are cheap, but I try not to buy anything not utterly necessary).
August 1st, 2014
Thanks everyone! You are all very helpful and I enjoyed seeing other examples. I'm going to attempt this on the weekend and I'll try to post them here.
August 1st, 2014
@quenbysheree You'll be able to shoot with wider apertures and will have much more control over the exposure in daylight with an ND filter
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