Water Help

J

Julesgurr23

Suspended / Banned
Messages
52
Name
Julian
Edit My Images
No
Hi guys, I'm really quite new to Photography, have no training, just trying to learn from my mistakes & as I go.

I've been trying to capture pictures of a waterfall and surrounding lake near me, but am struggling to get a half-decent picture.

I'm under the belief that to capture the water looking as if it's free-flowing, I need to increase the length of exposure time. I find when doing this though, the picture is very unclear as too much light is getting into the picture and I'm left with pretty much a White picture if nothing. ( I assume this is due to the light).

Is there anything. I can do to stop this? I'm currently using a Nikon D5000 with a standard 18-35mm lens. I have a tripod as well, but this is as far as my equipment lost goes.

Thanks guys & I look forward to hearing back from you.
 
You could use a ND filter - this reduces the light conming in. Search for the thread on welding glass - this is a chep alternative way of creating your own filter
 
Ok thanks. Without wanting to sound like too much of a fool, are filters a standard size? Or would I need to find one to fit my lens?
 
It sounds like you may be shooting in manual? You're right that you need a longer exposure but you also need to reduce your aperture (bigger F number) and/or ISO to compensate - otherwise you're just letting in more light, which ultimately results in a completely overexposed white image.

Easiest way to get the shot you're after would be to set the camera to Av, set aperture as small as it goes (something like f16 or f22), ISO100. Check what shutter speed that gives you - if you're in the 0.5' plus range you're in the money (if not do it when it's less sunny outside, or use an ND filter as suggested) and experiment from there (longer shutter/larger f number = more silky, shorter shutter/smaller f number = less silky).

I'm sure there's a number of tutorials on the web explaining the technique better than I!
 
You will also need a tripod or some sort of camera support, you wont be able to hand hold at those sort of speeds.
Just to clarify, are your pictures too light or blury?
 
Cheers for the help guys. I have been shooting in manual actually, so will give your advice a go.

I already use a tripod, and the images are coming out far too White.
 
If you're new to photography, I personally would not shoot in manual mode until I knew exactly which setting did what and how it related to other settings.

Like dfawkes said, stick it in aperture priority with a small aperture (high f number) low iso, and if it isn't how you want it to turn out, go back when it is darker
 
I wrote this for another forum so it's not exactly tailored to your situation, but you may find it useful. Happy to answer any questions

Right.
The only filters you need to buy (in my opinion) are neutral density and polarising filters. Everything else you can do in photoshop. ND and polarisers you can try and simulate, but you will never get it right. If you're on about seriously long daylight exposures then there's no way you can replicate that without the real thing.

So - starting with polarising filters.
These remove 'polarised light' - they make skies bluer and cut out reflections in water and car bodywork etc.
That's about it really (oh, and you could say they cut out 2 stops of light too...), but there's nothing else that can do the same job.

Example photo with a polarising filter

Chesterton Side 1 by Nick Tsiatinis, on Flickr

Neutral Density Filters
These come in two main types - the solid ND and the grad (for graduated or gradient). With ND grads you have two other types, hard and soft. I'll come to that in a bit.

So - solid ND filters - what are they? Well, it's basically something that you put in front of your lens which lengthens the exposure. A 0.3ND/ND2/1 stop will halve the amount of light getting to your sensor so you need to double the length of the exposure, a 0.6ND/ND4/2 stop will halve that again and a 0.9/ND8/3 stop will halve that again.

Why would you want this? Well, if you want to introduce a bit of motion into your photographs this is what you're after. Want the 'misty water' look? Solid NDs. Bit of motion in clouds? Solid NDs.

See the below image. The bit on the left was with no filter. Note the static look of the water. Then a 3 stop filter was added - the exposure was lengthened and we get the result on the right - motion in the water :)


filterdemo by Nick Tsiatinis, on Flickr

You then have the extreme of the 10 stop filter. This lengthens your exposure by 10 stops, so an exposure which is usually metered at 1/100th would require a length of 10 seconds with a 10 stop filter. This flattens moving water, gives you really long exposure time in bright daylight and is by far my favourite filter.

Example!


Serenity by Nick Tsiatinis, on Flickr

Now, ND grads...
These are the same as a solid ND, except that half the filter is coated with the neutral density bit, then the other half is clear. If the grad is hard then there's a really quick transition between the ND bit and the clear bit, but if it's soft then there's a really gradual transition. I personally believe soft ND grads are not worth it, because only the top part of the filter is actually the strength you bought. Again you can get these in varying strengths, the common ones being 1, 2 and 3 stops.

Why would you use these? Look outside on a normal day. You'll note the sky is usually much brighter than the ground. Your eyes can cope with these variances in brightness - your camera sensor cannot. Using a ND grad darkens a certain part of your photograph (the sky) bringing it within the cameras 'dynamic range' and allowing the whole scene to be recorded correctly without the sky 'blowing out'.
What strength do you use? Trial and error :)

Example: (10 stop filter stacked with 3 stop hard grad)


Still by Nick Tsiatinis, on Flickr

Purchasing ND filters
I'll not go into the intricacies of why you should choose slot in filters rather than screw in filters (just trust me on this, or someone else can tell you), but buy yourself the slot in variety.

You can get either (for example)

Cokin 'P' or compatible (such as Kood or anything marked 'P' type) - these are cheap and cheerful, but may not be 'neutral' density and may add certain unwanted colours to your photos (Cokin are legendary for turning your photos purple)

or

Lee Filters - expensive but quality.

Either way, you'll be needing a filter holder (to hold your filters), a lens adapter (mounts the holder to your lens - you need one of these for each size filter thread you have on your lens - most Canon kit lenses are 58mm, and the pro lenses are usually 77mm, although they can all be different, so please check!) and the filter itself.

A Cokin P compatible set of a holder, 58mm adapter and some ND filters can be purchased for less than £50 from Premier Ink

Conversely, a Lee set will cost you around £60 for the holder, another £30 or so for the filter adapter and then you're looking at £60 per filter. Not cheap!

If you have any other questions then just ask, but I'm bored of typing now and I hope I've given you enough info to get going with :lol:
Click to expand...
 
Wow Nick that was very informative, you definitely know what your talking about. Very, very helpful thank you.
 
Hi I am very new to photography and a couple of people on here advised me to get the book Understanding Exposure by Bryan Peterson and it was excellent advice. Really have learnt a lot in the last couple of days.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top