Timed exposures with water

[dynabrian]

i was wondering if anyone uses filters when shooting timed exposures with water, if yes what kind do you use to keep the water from being over exposed? This was shot during the daytime also, with a .3 second exposure at f/8 i believe.

http://www.pbase.com/image/27087171

I'm using a canon g1

[gschmickle]

Unless I'm in very low light conditions, I use various combinations of 2 or 3 stop neutral density filters and smaller aperature settings. In a pinch, I may also use a polarizing filter. If your camera is in aperature priority mode, it should be able to determine the appropriate shutter speed to prevent over-exposure unless you are trying to shoot in bright, high contrast light. Given this, the best time to shoot these scenes are in lower light conditions like cloudy days or early/late in the day. If that's not possible, try spot metering on the water to prevent over-exposure. You will likely need to post-process the shot in Photoshop (or whatever software you use) to bring up the shadows. I hope this helps.

-Guy

[jcboyd]

Brian – Try a little faster/little slower shutter speed. The correct shutter speed will depend on the speed of the water, the action of the water, the shape of the water and if it moves or churns back on itself. The more the water flows across the same area of the film the more likley of an overexposure. To these four things add the fifth element, the one we cannot control, the individual taste of the viewer. Looking at your image I do not consider this to be overexposed. The upper left hand portion may be somewhat overexposed but again it’s a matter of personal taste. Look at the difference in the shape of the water in the two images you have. The image with the flower has long streams of water which are not broken up until they hit at the bottom right. This leaves long fingers of water that show up as individual streams of moving water.

Nice images - john