Digital Photography Tricks - Discover How To Capture The Motion Of Moving Water!

The sun is out and there's a faint breeze as you enjoy a leisurely walk in your favourite countryside location. You detect a faint trickle of moving water in the distance, and as you move closer, you observe a winding stream. The water is bobbling across the stones lying in the shallow pool. You have your camera with you, and know this is a great chance to capture something really memorable. But how do you make moving water look amazing in a photograph? This article explains some digital photography tricks to use to make the most of this, and similar situations.

To start with, to be truly creative you will need to move away from using your automatic camera settings. Whilst the camera will do it's best to capture what it thinks you want, it is possible that it will choose a fast shutter speed, in order to 'freeze' the movement. If that's what you want to depict, then OK. But the more dramatic effect happens when the water motion is evident, and the rest of the picture is still.

A slow shutter speed will need to be chosen to show the motion of the water. The slower your shutter speed the greater the motion captured. The best method to try here is experimentation. After a shot immediately check the results on your LCD screen. Then adjust, to a slower or faster shutter speed, until you get the shot you want. To achieve the best effect you will need a shutter speed of at least 1/15 of a second, or longer. Truly smooth water should be captured if you leave the shutter open for over a second.

Using a slow shutter speed will mean that your camera needs to be absolutely still to avoid camera shake ruining the picture. The best way to establish a stable platform is to use a tripod. Another digital photography trick to utilise is to add a shutter release cable, giving you the greatest chance of eliminating camera movement during your shot. Also, set your ISO to around 100, with a small aperture, of about f/22 or f/36. A small aperture results in the slowest possible shutter speed for the ISO and light conditions.

You could also try using a digital photography trick from this list: -

* Try to get fairly close to the water you want to shoot. The blurring effect of the moving water is more noticeable if you are close up * Experiment by photographing different types of moving water scenes (waterfalls, rivers, streams etc.) * Revisit locations at different times of year to capture how nature has changed the look of them * If brightly-lit conditions affect the length of shutter speed you can use, consider the addition of a polarising or neutral density filter.