CAPTURE MOVING WATER

Experiment with shutter speeds to capture a sense of motion in water

A step-by-step guide to shooting moving water with a smooth, milky look, using slow shutter speeds

DIFFICULTY LEVEL: Intermediate TIME TAKEN: One hour

Although it has become something of a cliché over the years, using a slow shutter speed to record moving water as a graceful, milky blur is an undeniably effective technique – which is why so many photographers like to use it. From tumbling mountain streams to bubbling brooks and thundering waterfalls, wherever you find moving water, the same approach can be used to photograph it and turn an ordinary scene into a creative image that’s full of drama and atmosphere. Moving water is best photographed in soft light so there are no bright highlights to contend with, as sunlight reflects in the water’s surface – making it a perfect subject for those dull, grey winter days photographers in the UK know so well!

The key to shooting moving water is to use a shutter speed that’s slow enough to blur the water, so it records with a smooth, milky appearance, but not so slow that areas where the water is more concentrated start to overexpose and burn out. This is a matter of trial and error, but an exposure of 1/2-1sec makes a good starting point. The great thing about digital capture is you can check each shot you take, then reduce or increase the shutter speed until you get the perfect result.

© LEE FROST RightGLEN BRITTLE, ISLE OF SKYE A shutter speed of 1sec was used to photograph this scene – long enough to capture motion in the mountain stream but brief enough to record some texture in the water as well