Shooting Waterfalls and/or moving water

[ahockenberry]

Hi follks,
Yes, it is me asking yet another question...

I was wondering is you would share with me how you go about shooting moving water to give it smoother silky appearance? I have had some success with this, however, need further help...

For instance, during situations with lower light, it is easier to maintain a small aperature and longer shutter speed, but I find that if there is more sun or relfective light such as light being reflective off the water or snow, then it becomes more challenging.

Question 1.) What are your general rules of thumb in this regard?
Question 2.) Have you found it useful to use an ND filter or polarizer to further "stop down" the light in order to enable a longer shutter speed?
Question 3.) The other day, I found that my camera would (in Manual Mode) would not allow me in one situation to adjust to smaller than f/22, eve though it has the ability to go to f/29. Perhaps it is because of the built in light meter?

I thought the whole point of having a Manual Mode was to override whatever the camera's default settings were based on the photographers knowledge of the situation and not be restrained at one end of the scale for aperature or shotter speed.

In any case, I want to achieve longer shutter speeds and have the rest of the photo look normal in terms of exposure -during the day as well as in the early morning light or evening.


Any words of wisdom would be appreciated.
Thanks
Ashley

[imageswest]

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[Ron Lacey]

Question 2.) Have you found it useful to use an ND filter or polarizer to further "stop down" the light in order to enable a longer shutter speed?

Yes I find an ND filter a necessity for shooting moving water at slow shutter speeds. As well a Polarizer can work as a ND filter.

Question 3.) The other day, I found that my camera would (in Manual Mode) would not allow me in one situation to adjust to smaller than f/22, eve though it has the ability to go to f/29. Perhaps it is because of the built in light meter?I have no idea why this would be, are you sure the lens you used stops down that far? You do know that minimum aperture is a function of the lens not the camera.

I thought the whole point of having a Manual Mode was to override whatever the camera's default settings were based on the photographers knowledge of the situation and not be restrained at one end of the scale for aperture or shutter speed.AFAIK setting a camera to manual exposure doesn't restrict aperture settings.

In any case, I want to achieve longer shutter speeds and have the rest of the photo look normal in terms of exposure -during the day as well as in the early morning light or evening.Neutral density filters are what you want :). In the photo below I used a 3.0 ND filter to reduce the exposure by ten stops which is a little extreme. If your looking for an ND filter for each 0.3 in the number exposure is reduced by one stop.

http://ronsfotos.com/cascades/4.jpg

Ron

[ahockenberry]

Thanks gentlemen. The cheques are in the mail !

[Corry]

I think Ron makes a good point about using a polarizer for ND filter. Polarizers are great because you can adjust the amount of light by rotating the filter & if you have any sky in your water shots the blues will be outstanding

[Jonathan]

Ashley, you may want to check the cameras custom settings too. One can limit there aperature limit via custom functions. Not sure if this is the problem but an Idea.