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How to: Photograph Moving Water


Water is a wonderfully unique entity to photograph that can be approached in so many ways. Its movement can create shapes, shadows, and direction, and its color palate varies wildly. Here are a few tips to consider when photographing water next:

Tip #1) Choosing to freeze or show motion: Shutter speeds play a major role when photographing any moving subject. With water specifically, when we freeze its motion using a faster shutter speed, we expect to see fine details. We may see individual water droplets, depending on our physical distance. This is done by using a shutter speed faster than the water’s motion itself. When we slow down our shutter speeds however, this shows the waters’ motion in turn creating that smooth, dreamy, almost froth-like look.


© Erica Robinson
Image Data : f/8, ISO 1600, 1/3 sec.

Tip #2) Use of neutral density (ND) filters: The combination of photographing in bright light conditions and slow shutter speeds often results in over exposed images with blown-out highlights. These highlights are difficult, or even impossible, to recover at times. A Neutral density filter is an additional piece of glass mounted to a lens, making it an option to lengthen shutter speeds in those highly lit conditions without over-exposing. ND filters can individually range from fractions of stops to ten stops, while a variable ND has a rotating ring and is capable of multiple stops all in one filter. These can be extremely useful when we find ourselves photographing a beautiful waterfall at high noon and wanting to show the softness of the water.
Extra tip: Do not forget your tripod!


© Yuki Hayashi
Image Data: f/4.0, ISO 400, 1/1000

Tip #3) Focusing on composition: Showing shapes, shadows, direction and reflections can level up your images. When slowing down the shutter speed like we talked about in these previous tips, we have the opportunity to see water moving through time in a singular frame and its intensity. For example, fast water flowing over rocks may appear in whiter streaks. You can use this to show direction of water movement and patterns as leading lines. With still water, try taking advantage of any reflections that may be created on the calm surface. This is a helpful trick in the city after a big rainstorm where puddles reflect the skyscrapers or in a pond on an Autumn Day when leaves lay on the surface.




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