Jun 04 2010
Landscape And Seascape Photography Tips – Creating A Misty Water Effect
Have you looked at a landscape photographers photo and wonder how they got the water coming down from a waterfall to look so misty? Or how did they get the ocean in a seascape photograph to look so smooth? My guess is that if you are starting out in landscape photography its probably one of the first things you’ve tried to do. If you got it right the first time that’s great, if you didn’t then let me show you just how easy it can be to create the misty water effect. There is every chance that if you are just starting out that you won’t have purchased yourself any filters as yet. Filters will make it easier for you to create the misty water effect but they aren’t essential, its just means you’ll have to get up a little earlier in the morning and stay out a little later in the evening.
Getting up early or staying up late is the key to getting the misty water effect. If you try and do these shots in the middle of the day without any filters its just not going to work for you unfortunately. Also the light in the middle of the day is not as nice as it is in the sunrise or sunset light. You’re also going to need something to keep your camera steady while you are shooting the water, I’d recommend a tripod but you can place your camera onto a rock or something solid as long as its safe.
Once you are ready to go its probably easiest to set your camera onto aperture priority mode and use the lowest ISO setting that you possibly can. Set your aperture to a setting around F16 if you can. It goes without saying that your next step should be to focus on your chosen subject to make sure your photo will be as sharp as possible. You should also consider getting a remote shutter release and to use mirror lockup to make sure that your camera doesn’t shake while you are taking the photo. Now for the fun part, take the photo! If your shutter is open long enough you’ll see that you too have created the misty water effect that you have been after. How hard was that?
If you decide that landscape or seascape photography is something that you definitely want to continue doing then you should at some stage consider purchasing a few neutral density filters, preferably the darker the better. The darker a neutral density filter the longer you can shoot your subjects after the sun has risen or the earlier you can take a photo before the sunsets.
Over time I’ve found that holding your shutter open for around one to four seconds provide the best misty water effects. If you hold your shutter open for less than that your water doesn’t look misty but just out of focus and its not visually pleasing. If you hold your shutter open for more than four seconds its tends to flatten out the water and just makes it look boring. Hopefully this has been of help to you. One last thing, its a really good idea to focus on your subject before putting your neutral density filter on as its really difficult to see your subject once you put your filter on.
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