Probably as much as railroad tracks, photographers flock to moving water. The allure is obvious, you can create motion in a still photo. But just “milky” water doesn’t make a photograph. There is more to it then that and during our DLWS in Lake Placid last week where we had three water shoots. I’ve received a number of compliments on my images from the shoots with a follow up question of, “How did you get that?” If there is one “trick” to this is what my bud Joe McNally loves to make fun of. I realize I’m photographing bubbles!
The first thing you need is a slow shutter speed. You can do that in a number of ways from lowering Aperture and ISO to attaching a Polarizer or ther filter. Or my favorite way, no light! These shots were taken in the rain at the time the sun was officially setting. It was dark! So getting a slow shutter speed was easy. Now what we’re recording as “flowing water” is actually the bubbles in the water created as it tumbles over rocks. Rocks then are the next key to making this kind of shot. You need rocks to create the bubbles and you need them visually as a sharp element. Without this, everything is blurry to the mind’s eye and that ain’t good. After finding these two prime elements I then personally take a bunch of test shots. I find it hard to predict what the design element of the water will be in advance so I shoot possible candidates and once I find one I like, I go to work.
I normally go through five or six test locations before I find one I like. Once I have the one, I shoot a bunch with varying shutter speeds to look at the final effect of the blur on my LCD. Blur is a combination of water speed vs shutter speed. Once I have the shutter speed dialed in for the particular shot, I will shoot at least a dozen of the one scene. Later at the computer I will select the one I like the best on the pattern of the “bubbles” and finish it.
Finishing can be any number of steps based on the image. You have here everything from dust removal to CEP4 Detail Enhancement, White Neutralizer, Darken/Lighten Center and Silver Efex Pro 2 to a simple Adjustment Layer > Curve. The before and afters are here so you can see where I started to where I ended. mtc…
Photos captured by D3x, 70-200VRII on Lexar UDMA digital film