[spectamaniac]

After reading these posts I just spent about an hour and a half taking pictures of water flowing over a spoon into a pot in my sink experimenting with all this stuff...interesting results haha.

[civiletti]

here are some examples:


distant shot with FA77, polarizer, 2 bracketed exposures.


no polarizer(note light on the leaves), 10mm, very close to subject though it doesnt look it.


3 bracketed exposures, polarizer, FA31, stopped way down (f/13)

I climbed to the top to shoot the view looking down the waterfall toward the pool.

Mike, I like that B+W a lot. The foliage looks carved from stone. Where is the falls?

[Sagitta]

I've only had the chance to play with waterfalls/flowing water a few times, mostly due to always being out when its far too bright for what I had at hand to shoot the scene. Its something I plan to correct at some point, since I now live literally a block away from the Kennebec River and about 4 from a small waterfall of sorts where the river drops over a small dam that's been there for well over a century (the neighborhood I live in is actually called Head of Falls locally).

These were with the 18-55mm kit lens with my K-x.

1.6 seconds, 55mm, f/32, ND+8 filter, ISO 100



A bit more sane aperture here... 1/8 second, 55mm, f/8, not sure which ND filter here, ISO 200.



.8 seconds, 18mm, f/3.5 (yup, wide open...), ND filter (not sure which), ISO 200

[spectamaniac]

So, everyone says polarizers or nd filters. Do these basically just block out extra/unneeded light wavelengths?

[icywindow]

A polarizer blocks about 1.3 stops of light and basically also reduces light at a certain angle from entering the lens. If you have a pair of those 3d glasses that you get at the theater, you can personally see the effects of a polarizer just by turning your head while looking at the sky or at water - it will go from bright to dark depending on the angle at which you look at it.

An ND filter blocks light, since if you have a lot of light (Ever heard of Sunny 16? That's 1/100 / ISO 100 / F/16 for proper exposure on a sunny day), you'll need to block some of that light to get the shutter speed down to 1/2 second.

Sagitta, I really like the third shot you posted. It's very vibrant and energizing.

[mikeSF]

Mike, I like that B+W a lot. The foliage looks carved from stone. Where is the falls?

Thx. The B&w shot is a small falls in Maui at the end of the road to Hana.

[Sagitta]

Sagitta, I really like the third shot you posted. It's very vibrant and energizing.

Thanks. It certainly energized me - I waded out into the middle of the stream to shoot the thing, and the water is from a spring fed pond. I shot it the last day of September so that water was COLD (Central Maine and all), and I had to fiddle around trying to find the slowest lens I had to help the ND along.

Which actually brings up a point - with waterfalls, fastest isn't bestest as far as lenses go. If you still want to include some degree of bokeh in the shot, then you'll want the slowest lens you can find since shooting wide open tends to make this kind of shot even more difficult than it already is. An old 70's era f/3.5 (or your good ol' 18-55 kit lens) could well be your friend in a case like this.

EDIT: I do think two out of three of the shots I posted were actually HDRs, now that I think about it. I was mucking with the Photomatix trial back around that time and I think I used that to help pop the colors.

[dmfw]

Observation:

If you do not own a ND filter, or left yours at home, try shooting, on a tripod, at low ISO, high F stop with a telephoto lens, ex. 200mm+. This will result in slower shutter speed and give the misty water effects.