From rivers to raindrops, water is a fascinating subject. But what are the best ways to capture it in a photograph? Lee Frost suggests 10 ways to maximise your liquid assets.

1. BLUR MOVING WATER

Whether it’s a river, a waterfall or the sea washing against the shore, the most common way to shoot moving water is with a slow shutter speed, so it records as a graceful blur.

With waterfalls, where the water is fastmoving, an exposure time of 1/2 to Isec is usually long enough. You can expose for longer, but if there’s a lot of water flowing, such as a waterfall after heavy rain, you may find that areas overexpose and record as white (use your camera’s highlight warning to check). If in doubt, try a range of shutter speeds from 1/8sec to several seconds then choose the best.

With the sea, the exposure you use will depend on the type of scene you’re photographing, the effect you want, and also prevailing light levels. To record big waves crashing against the shore, a shutter speed of 1/2 to Isec is again ideal as it will record the explosion of water, whereas if you use an exposure of several seconds that effect will be lost. However, at dawn or dusk you may have no choice but to use an exposure of many seconds due to the low light level. If that’s the case, don’t worry – the longer the exposure, the smoother the effect will be, turning the sea into an atmospheric mist where waves wash against the shore.

If light levels are high and you can’t manage a suitably slow shutter speed, even with your lens set to its smallest aperture (f/16 or f/22 usually), use an ND filter to reduce the light entering the lens. A 0.6 ND filter will increase the exposure by two stops, so instead of using 1/8sec you could set 1/2, for example, while a 0.9 ND requires a three-stop exposure increase and would allow you to use a shutter speed of Isec instead of 1/8sec.

To enhance the effect of blurred water, include solid, static features in your composition. Rocks in rivers and streams or at the base of waterfalls are ideal because the water flows around them and the contrast between blurred and sharp looks highly effective. The same applies with coastal views – record the sea washing around pebbles or boulders on the beach, or partly-submerged rocks lying off-shore.

2. USE A 10-STOP ND FILTER

If you want to take blurry water to the extreme then you’ll need to buy yourself a 10-stop (or similar) ND filter – Lee Big Stopper, Hitech Prostop IR ND 10, B+W 110 3.0, to name but three. Pop one of these beauties on your lens and day turns to night. You’ll need to increase the exposure by lOOOx, so 1/30sec becomes 30 seconds, 1/15 sec becomes 1 minute, 1/8sec become 2 minutes and so on. In other words, you can use super-long exposures in broad daylight.

I love to use this technique on seascapes on dark, cloudy days to turn the sea to milk so it contrasts dramatically with static features such as piers, jetties, rocks, cliffs, groynes and other coastal features.

These filters are so dark you can barely see through them so you need to set up the shot without the filter on the lens – compose the scene, focus the lens manually as AF won’t work through the 10-stopper, align an ND grad if you need one then take a test shot to determine the exposure. Multiply that exposure by 1000 (the examples above will give you a starting point), set your camera to bulb so you can time the exposure, pop your ND filter on the lens and fire away. It’s that easy – but the results will blow you away!

3. FREEZE MOVING WATER

Although blurry water looks great, it may not always be the best option and in some situations you may decide to freeze it instead. Shots of waves crashing over a sea wall or against a rocky shore, water exploding from a geyser, or your kids soaking themselves with a hosepipe on a sunny summer’s day tend to look more effective if the water is frozen, and to do that you will need a fast shutter speed.

How fast? Well, as a minimum I’d say 1/500sec, though if you can go faster 1/1000sec, even 1/2000sec – then do so. In bright, sunny weather, achieving such high shutter speeds shouldn’t pose any problems even with a relatively low ISO such as 100 if you set your lens to a wide aperture of f/5.6 or f/4. When light levels are lower, open your lens right up to its widest aperture and increase the ISO to 400 or higher.

4. WATER IN THE LANDSCAPE

We may moan about the weather, but one great benefit of high rainfall levels is that water is an integral part of the British countryside, adding great interest to our landscape compositions.

Rivers and streams can be used as foreground interest, to add a sense of scale and lead the eye into a scene. This technique works particularly well if you use a wideangle lens, though a telephoto can also be useful for compressing perspective to emphasise distant curves and ‘S’ bends in rivers. It’s worth packing a pair of wellies when heading off to shoot watery landscapes as you may find the best viewpoint is knee-deep in the middle of a stream! Where there’s water you will also find reflections, especially in lakes, ponds, lochs and tarns where the water is static. For the best results you need a perfectly still day so the water’s surface is mirror-calm – though if the water is in a sheltered area you may find a calm spot even when there’s a breeze blowing.

Where you have a nice reflection of the landscape and sky in the water it often pays to compose the scene symmetrically, so the far shore cuts across the centre of the frame. This will give you a balanced composition that’s easy on the eye and which also captures the calm, static nature of the scene.

When I shoot scenes like this I tend to use a weak ND grad on my lens so the reflection doesn’t come out much darker than the scene being reflected.

A 0.3 or 0.45 grad is aligned so it covers everything in the top of the shot down to the shore of the lake. My camera then naturally increases the exposure so the reflection comes out lighter, while the grad filter tones down the rest of the shot so it doesn’t overexpose. The key is not to over grad, otherwise the reflection will be lighter than the landscape and that defies the laws of physics!

5. ABSTRACT REFLECTIONS

Reflections can also make successful photographs in their own right, so as well as shooting on a grand scale, it’s also a good idea to ignore your surroundings and concentrate on the reflection alone.

Harbours are great locations as you get the shapes and tones of boats reflecting in the water. Rivers and lakes reflecting the surrounding scenery also work well, as do puddles and ponds. The reflections are clear and crisp when the water is flat calm, then suddenly abstract when its surface is ruffled and the shapes are distorted. Both options make great shots, and if the water isn’t disturbed naturally, you can always throw a small stone in to create ripples and break up the reflection.

A telezoom is ideal for shooting reflections as you can home in on the most interesting areas and fill the frame for maximum impact. Remember to focus on the reflection itself, rather than the surface of the water. You may also need to shoot at a small aperture – f/11 or smaller – to record the whole reflection in sharp focus.

6. ICE AND EASY

Water doesn’t have to be liquid to make a great subject – ice is also water, just in frozen form! Having visited Iceland numerous times in recent years, I’ve shot more than my fair share of the solid stuff and I love it! Big lumps of ice make ideal foreground interest and if they’re not moving you can use slow shutter speeds to blur water washing around them (see techniques 1 and 2 for more information).

Of course, you don’t have to go all the way to Iceland to shoot ice. On a cold winter’s day you’ll find it much closer to home – in frozen puddles, ponds and pools; in icicles hanging from gutters and roofs; in condensation on cold surfaces or raindrops on your car bonnet. Look closer and you’ll discover fascinating ice patterns that make great shots if you fill the frame with a standard zoom or telezoom.

7. WATCH YOUR EXPOSURES

Water reflects light like mad, so if there’s a lot of it in the frame or you’re including highlights on water, your camera’s metering system can easily be fooled into underexposure.

My approach in tricky situations is simple. I tend to take a test shot in aperture priority with no exposure compensation applied and check the image and histogram. If the shot is underexposed (histogram weighted to the left) I dial-in +1/3, +2/3 or +1 (or in extreme situations up to +2) stop of exposure compensation and reshoot. I then check the image/histogram again and repeat if necessary.

Sometimes underexposure can be a bonus, so don’t be too eager to override your camera’s metering system. If you include water in the background on a photograph and there are highlights on it, any solid objects between you and the water will record as silhouettes. Boats and windsurfers on the water, or people and trees on the shore, make great silhouettes against sparkling water.

Overexposure can also work when water forms the background to your main subject. By gradually increasing the exposure to +2 or even +3 stops over the metered exposure, you’ll overexpose the water until it becomes white to create an atmospheric high-key effect.

8. PHOTOGRAPHING RAIN

The easiest way to capture the effect of falling rain is by shooting into the sun and against a dark background, so the raindrops are backlit, and using a shutter speed of 1/30sec or slower so the droplets record as glistening streaks.

The same applies if you want to photograph your kids soaking each other with a garden hose, or to add interest to plant and flower portraits – with the latter you can set up your props so they’re against a dark, shady background, wait for the sun to come out, then use a watering can to mimic rainfall and shoot towards the sun.

If the sun refuses to make an appearance you can capture rain in other ways splashing in puddles, dancing on the surface of rivers and lakes, or dripping off plants and trees. Wet streets after rain also make great mono subjects and if you shoot at night there will be lots of reflections in the wet surfaces to add contrast to your shots.

9. MOVE IN CLOSE

Water droplets make fascinating patterns if you move in close and fill the frame. After a bout of rain, go outside with your camera and look for raindrops. Your car will be covered in them and so will every leaf, flower and blade of grass in your garden. Water droplets created by rainfall or condensation also gather on windows, which you can then backlight to reveal interesting patterns.

If you can’t find watery patterns, create your own by spraying water on to a suitable surface using a plant mister. As well as patterns of droplets, also look for a single drop of water dangling precariously from the end of a leaf or petal.

If you want to get in really close, a lifesize (1:1) macro lens will be required. Alternatively, fit extension tubes or cheaper supplementary close-up lenses to a standard 50mm lens or standard zoom so you can focus down to just a few centimetres.

10. GET THE LGHT RIGHT

The appearance and mood of water is determined by the time of day and prevailing weather conditions. In sunny weather under clearer skies, rivers, lakes and the sea tend to look very blue, whereas on a cloudy day they appear grey and drab. Early or late in the day, water takes on an attractive warm cast while at sunrise and, more likely, sunset, it can shimmer like liquid gold. Colour is of no real relevence when your end goal is a monochrome image, but it does alter the tone of the water when you convert the image so it needs to be considered.

The position of the sun also plays an important role. When it’s almost overhead around midday a glassy, highly reflective finish is produced, with lots of tiny highlights dancing on the water’s surface. But during the morning or afternoon, when the sun is at a low angle, light rakes across the water’s surface, texture is revealed and you get much better results.

All pictures © Lee Frost