At last - waterfall with blurred water!

Hen3ry wrote:

richj20 wrote:

Hen3ry wrote:

I have seen various objections to the smoothing effect of extended exposures, so I thought I would do a range. In fact, I did from 1-1/100 sec. The 1/10 (approx.) zone seemed to me to give the truest rendering of what I saw. The 1/100 sec shows rougher water but it is not what I saw, not my impression.

Beautiful waterfall, Geoffrey!

The 1/10 sec. exposure is nice. People often strive for an artistic effect for water with very slow shutter speeds. The photographs by John Sexton of the Merced River in Yosemite National Park are an example:

http://shop.anseladams.com/Merced_River_Happy_Isles_Yosemite_p/17150312.htm

Another example by a different photographer, Paul Chong:

https://paulchongphotography.files.wordpress.com/2014/06/river-water.jpg

Showing a range of shutter speeds is interesting to display the different effects of water. I'm doing a series on the Kern River in the Sequoia National Park, California, showing the different "moods" of the river. A fast shutter speed in the white water areas reveals the power and fury of the river, for example.

Right on with this last sentence, rich. I rejected the 1/100 pic because it was too powerful and furious for this little waterfall and had totally the wrong feel about it.

But lots of fast moving waster and rapids and falls and whatnot -- yes, yes, yes, faster shutter speed to show the water leaping about and smashing rocks (well, quite slowly smashing rocks! :))

It's fascinating how the effect of water can be rendered. Consider this scene: the road around this lake in a local park is designed to be a spillway at this point, so that a torrential rain, as happened on this occasion, will allow the water to flow into a river below.

I chose a shutter speed of 1/100 sec because from this vantage point, it gave enough "definition" (for lack of a better word) to the water flowing over the spillway.

Close up, however, the differences in effect can be striking. Note that a given shutter speed doesn't render the same effect for every situation. The first uses 1/10 sec. but is quite different than what 1/10 sec. produced for your waterfall.

1/10 sec.

1/250 sec. produced the effect I wanted as a contrast to the above.

It's great fun to experiment with a water scene!

best regards, Geoffrey,

- Richard