Pic Know How: Milky Waters

Milky Waters

©JP Parmley

Gatlinburg, TN

Have you ever wanted to create an image of a water fall or moving stream that gives you that milky water effect? This is a fairly straight forward technique that virtually anyone can do, even with a point-n-shoot camera.

The key to this effect is a longer exposure (> 1 sec). The longer the exposure, the more water that passes in the picture and the more milky the water effect will be. To get a picture like this place the camera on a tripod in manual mode. Set the ISO to a low value like 100-400. Then set the shutter to the desired setting (1-30Sec).

Most cameras have a built in exposure meter that will show you what the exposure setting is. Adjust the aperture (f-stop) until the exposure is set at 0 or in the middle. Expect the aperture to be set relatively high since the shutter is longer. Start off at 1 sec and then move up - evaluating each picture as you move to 10-30 seconds.

You can experiment with different ISO and aperture settings for different depths of filed, but moving from 1 to 30 second shutters will dramatically change the look of the water. If you increase the time of the shutter, expect to need to increase the aperture to compensate for the amount of light. At some point, you will reach the maximum aperture of the lens in order to achieve the proper exposure. If this happens, make sure the ISO is set to the lowest setting. Once you have the ISO at 50 or 100, and you still are at a maximum aperture, you have reached the max shutter time for that picture.

If you have DSLR and want the flexibility of shooting longer shutter settings, you can add a neutral density filter to the lens. These are tinted filters that limit the amount of light into the lens. These are made in different shades to give you options. However, if you want one filter that gives you the most flexibility, look at variable neutral density filter. This type of filter allows you to adjust how dark the filter is with a simple turn. These can run into the hundreds of dollars, but Vivitar has a few under $75 and the image quality is pretty good. Look here for samples.

Something to keep in mind is this....if there are trees, bushes, flowers, etc that will be in the frame, the longer shutters can create a blurred or image that is not sharp if wind is blowing them.

Send me some of your pics and I will post them.

Here are a few of mine.