Motion blur, silky water effect

 

If you want to be creative with your camera then one way is to start by understanding the use of shutter speed (exposure time), aperture and ISO.

You can read about aperture in one of my previous posts:
http://bishtss.blogspot.com/2010/11/f-number-minimum-you-would-like-to-know.html

I won't talk about ISO here. All the pictures featuring in this post were taken with the ISO set to its minimum value (80 on the Panasonic ZS7, and 200 on the Nikon D40).

I have been asked several times about (a) how to take pictures of water with the silky effect and (b) how I took several "light painting" pictures (for e.g. https://picasaweb.google.com/saurabh.bisht/Year201X#5578543189702625810).
The most straight forward answer to both these questions is: I increased the shutter speed == I used a slower shutter speed == I increased the exposure time.

• Shutter speed == exposure time == the duration of time for which the camera captures whatever it sees.
• For e.g.: Shutter speed of 1/10 sec == faster shutter speed == less exposure time in comparison to a shutter speed of 1 sec.
• For e.g.: Shutter speed of 1/10 sec == slower shutter speed == more exposure time in comparison to a shutter speed of 1/100 sec.

To get the silky effect in water you want the camera exposure time to be long enough so that during the time which the camera is capturing the image, the water moves thus creating a motion blur. There is no universal shutter speed value to use, you will have to see what value works best for the scene and for your purpose.  

You can set the shutter speed (or the exposure time) in either the "shutter" mode or the "manual" mode of the camera. If you are just setting the shutter speed then one issue you might run into is that the final image might be too bright. In such situations, one option is to control the final brightness by changing the aperture value. Now since you want to set both the shutter and aperture value, you need to work in the manual mode. Another option is to take the picture when its not too brightly lit, for e.g. avoid bright sunny conditions.

Consider the pictures shown below. These were taken using a Panasonic ZS7 mounted on a tripod. I used the shutter mode. I selected the shutter speed; the camera selected the aperture value. The ISO was set to 80. Compare the ones on the left with those on the right. The shutter speeds which were used are mentioned in the pictures.

Figure 1. Pictures taken using a Panasonic ZS7 mounted on a tripod. Mode: Shutter, ISO: 80.

Don't compare the overall brightness. Compare just the water and how it looks. The pictures on the left had a faster shutter speed in comparison to their counterparts on the right. In the pictures on the left, the water seems to have been frozen in motion. In comparison there is a motion-blur in the pictures on the right. Due to this difference you can see the silky effect more in the pictures on the right.

Another example. Consider the pictures below. These were taken using a Nikon D40 mounted on a tripod. I used the manual mode. That way I selected the shutter speed and aperture. This gave me more control on the overall final brightness of the picture (I was not concerned about the depth-of-field effect of aperture). The ISO was 200. The shutter speeds and aperture values which I used are mentioned in the pictures.

Figure 2. Pictures taken using a Nikon D40 mounted on a tripod. Mode: Manual. ISO: 200.

Again note that with a slower shutter speed, the picture on the right, the silky effect is more prominent. In comparison, with a faster shutter speed, the water seems to have been frozen in motion.

Hopefully this explains how to take pictures with silky water effect and some basics about the use of shutter speed. The picture shown below was taken using a Panasonic ZS7 in the shutter mode, with a shutter speed of 1 sec. Happy Shooting.