Flowing water
Many photographers love the look of silky-smooth
flowing water, and so they use neutral density fil-
ters to be able to use long shutter speeds during
the day to get this effect. A neutral density filter
goes over the front of your lens to reduce the
amount of light by a specific amount, usually mea-
sured in stops. For example, a 3-stop neutral den-
sity filter reduces the amount of light by 3 stops
and the 6-stop filter reduces the light by 6 stops,
as shown in Figure 10-11.
The general idea is to use a shutter speed that
blurs the motion of the water enough that you
stop seeing the water’s details, but instead see the
water as a bigger moving object. The actual shut-
ter speed that you need depends on how much
the water is moving.
When it comes to photographing the ocean,
remember that the tide is either coming in or
going out. So when you set up the shot, knowFor cameras that offer a live view feature, the
mirror is locked up already, so using live view
might actually be a better option. Using live
view allows you to compose the image without
having to put your eye to the viewfinder and
inadvertently touching the camera as the image
appears on the LCD. For Figure 10-10, I made
sure that the tripod was set securely and I used
the mirror lockup feature to make sure there was
no blur at all.
One last note about vibration, and specifically
vibration reduction technology: Vibration reduc-
tion or image stabilization technology is meant to
be used when handholding the camera and lens,
not when it is set in a tripod. Some lenses can
detect when they are mounted on a tripod, and
they turn off the vibration reduction automati-
cally. As a result, when the camera and lens are
mounted in a tripod, you need to turn the vibra-
tion reduction or image stabilization feature off.
ABOUT THIS PHOTO Photographing the pier on a moonless night resulted in a darker sky, and most of the illumination came from the lights
on the pier. This is the same scene as in Figure 10-9 but here I set the tripod farther up the beach away from the incoming tide. Taken at 5 minutes
and 30 seconds, f/16, and ISO 200.
10-10