Water Long Exposure
For our next assignment, I want you to take a long exposure of a scene with water. What this will do is smooth the chop out of the water giving it that milky smoothness you see in professional photographs. Oftentimes, this takes a lot of equipment, but with it being summer with its late sunsets, going out in the evening when the light is low is a great way to avoid the need for filters. That being said, this will require a tripod or something very stationary.
Here is what you do. Go to a place with water and set up your tripod. Compose the photo as you normally would (you want something in the foreground that remains in focus to contrast with the blurred water). If you can, switch the camera to manual focus after you have composed the image to avoid lens hunting. Set the camera to Aperture Priority Mode if available and choose a high number like f/16 or f/22. This will let in a small amount of light and give you good depth of field. Also, set the camera ISO to its lowest value (usually 100). Now check and see what shutter speed your camera is planning to use – if it is greater than 1 second, you are good. If not, you may need to wait a bit longer until it is darker to take the picture. Use the countdown timer on the camera when you take the picture to avoid camera shake by pushing the shutter release. Check your image and then experiment until you get the results you want.
Alternatively, you can purchase something called a neutral density (ND) filter for your camera. This filter blocks light and allows you to blur moving objects even in broad daylight (if the filter is strong enough). A 10 stop ND filter is a common filter used by professional photographers to get the blurred water you often see.
If this all sounds too complicated, go the experimental route and simply set your camera to shutter priority and set the shutter speed to anything greater than 1 sec and start shooting. Still put the camera on a tripod and use the countdown timer. I have done this many times and it works, it just takes a bit more trial and error to get a useable image.
