“Capturing Alaska”
with Wayde Carroll






“That Silky Water Effect”



       “How do you get the water to look like that?”

  I’ve been asked this question many times. What people are referring to is the silky, blurred, effect you can achieve with moving water, or any moving subject for that matter. The technique itself is fairly simple. What you need to do is use a fairly long shutter speed ranging anywhere from 1/4” to several seconds or more depending on the speed your subject is traveling. The faster your subject the less time you need to achieve a desirable blur.
  Sounds easy enough right? The catch is, if you want the stationary objects to appear sharp, you need to use a tripod! I’m amazed at how difficult it is to get some people to use a tripod. Even when they go through the effort of carrying one it is like pulling teeth to get them to set it up and actually use it!
  Now that you all have sworn to use the tripod you will be carrying, here is what you should do.
After you’ve set up the camera and double-checked your composition, set your cameras ISO to the lowest option available, usually ISO 100 or ISO 50. Not only will this give you less noise in your image,  it also aids in giving you a slower shutter speed. Now, take your camera off of any “auto program” mode you may have it on. The camera doesn’t know the effect you are looking for and only tries to achieve proper exposure. You can achieve excellent results in Manual, Aperture Priority, or Shutter Priority modes. I’ll use Manual for this description.
  In manual exposure mode, set a small aperture from F8 to F22 to make sure you have a nice range of apparent focus (depth of field). The smaller aperture also adds more time to your exposure thus also aiding to your motion blur effect. Now adjust your shutter speed until your in camera meter is set at zero- in the center- for a proper exposure. If you don’t have a shutter speed of 1/4 second or longer try a smaller aperture and then readjust your shutter speed until your meter reads correctly.
  On typical overcast days or in shaded forests or in low light scenes (dawn, dusk) this should give you plenty of blur to achieve the silky effect. Experiment with different shutter/aperture combinations to achieve the effect you like. When you have white water (rapids etc.) in the scene it is important to keep an eye on your histogram and make sure any bright areas aren’t flashing. If they are you will have no detail there. Adjust your settings so that you are slightly underexposed, ie: your camera meter is reading two or three notches in the “minus” direction.
  Occasionally you may want to try this effect in bright situations (full daylight etc.) when even at your lowest ISO and smallest aperture you can’t achieve a slow shutter speed. Fear not! There are options available to you. They require the purchase of additional tools but they are tools valuable for other reasons as well. Pretty much any filter that reduces the amount of light reaching your sensor, and thus increasing the length of exposure, can aid you in this situation. A polarizing filter reduces your exposure by approximately two stops. Neutral density filters come in gradations that reduce your light intake in values from one to eleven stops, also you can use more than one (stacking) to dramatically increase your exposure time. If you do stack filters pay attention to possible vignetting at the corners of your image. If this occurs, zoom in a little bit or plan on cropping in a bit. Sometimes the vignette works well.
  Once you’ve found the right shutter speed/aperture combo it helps to use your cameras timer or a cable release to reduce vibration. Also, if you have a mirror lock up function available it can really help. This function raises the mirror inside the camera on the first press of the cable or shutter button and then releases the shutter on the second press, instead of both being done on the same press and possibly adding unwanted vibration.
 Lastly, it pays to wait until any breeze has died down and make sure your camera strap isn’t loosely dangling around adding movement! Wooden walkways and bridges are dangerous as well. Anyone walking on them during an exposure will ruin your shot. I’ve spent a lot of time just waiting for a break in the wind or a lack of people. It’s always time well spent.