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B+W
If you want to take blurry water to the
extreme then you’ll need to buy yourself
a 10-stop (or similar) ND filter – Lee Big
Stopper, Hitech Prostop IR ND 10, B+W
110 3.0, to name but three. Pop one of
these beauties on your lens and day
turns to night. You’ll need to increase the
exposure by 1000x, so 1/30sec becomes
30 seconds, 1/15 sec becomes 1 minute,
1/8sec become 2 minutes and so on.
In other words, you can use super-long
exposures in broad daylight.
I love to use this technique on seascapes
on dark, cloudy days to turn the sea to
milk so it contrasts dramatically with static
features such as piers, jetties, rocks, cliffs,
groynes and other coastal features.
These filters are so dark you can barely
see through them so you need to set
up the shot without the filter on the lens- compose the scene, focus the lens
manually as AF won’t work through the
10-stopper, align an ND grad if you need
one then take a test shot to determine the
exposure. Multiply that exposure by 1000
(the examples above will give you a starting
point), set your camera to bulb so you can
time the exposure, pop your ND filter on
the lens and fire away. It’s that easy – but
the results will blow you away!
2 USE A 10-STOP ND FILTER SWANAGE, DORSET
A 10-stop or similar ND filter allows you to
use exposures of several minutes in broad
daylight. One effect of doing this is that
moving water is smoothed out and takes
on a silky sheen, as this image shows.
Canon EOS 1DS MKIII with 24-70mm lens, B+W 110
3.0ND, 109secs at f/22, ISO 100Although blurry water looks great, it may not
always be the best option and in some situations
you may decide to freeze it instead. Shots of
waves crashing over a sea wall or against a
rocky shore, water exploding from a geyser, or
your kids soaking themselves with a hosepipe
on a sunny summer’s day tend to look more
effective if the water is frozen, and to do that you
will need a fast shutter speed.
How fast? Well, as a minimum I’d say
1/500sec, though if you can go faster –
1/1000sec, even 1/2000sec – then do so.
In bright, sunny weather, achieving such high
shutter speeds shouldn’t pose any problems
even with a relatively low ISO such as 100 if you
set your lens to a wide aperture of f/5.6 or f/4.
When light levels are lower, open your lens right
up to its widest aperture and increase the ISO
to 400 or higher.3 FREEZE MOVING WATER
STROKKUR GEYSIR, ICELAND
When water’s moving fast you need a high shutter
speed to free it. I used 1/2500sec here and you can
see individual droplets of water backlit by the sun.
Canon EOS 1DS MKIII with 24-70mm lens,
1/2500sec at f/9, ISO 400‘When light levels are lower, open your
lens right up to its widest aperture and
increase the ISO to 400 or higher.’60-65_LEE_FROST 175 ER/MB.indd 6160-65_LEE_FROST 175 ER/MB.indd 61 27/02/2015 10:3227/02/2015 10:32