Home  Donate  New  Search  Gallery  Reviews  How-To  Books  Links  Workshops  About  Contact

Best Shutter Speeds for Moving Water

Please help KenRockwell..com

This free website's biggest source of support is when you use those or any of these links to approved sources when you get anything, regardless of the country in which you live — but I receive nothing for my efforts if you take the chance of buying elsewhere. I get no government hand-outs and run no pledge drives to support my research, so please always use any of these links to approved sources for the best prices, service and selection whenever you get anything. Thanks for helping me help you! Ken.

 

September 2018   Better Pictures   Canon   Sony   Nikon   Fuji   LEICA   All Reviews

 

Which is the best shutter speed depends on how you want the water to look.

1/30 makes the water look about as it looks to our eyes.

Faster speeds stop it.

Slower speeds make the moving water look more like dreamy veils.

This is all there is to it.

Here's exactly how water falling over rocks in a river look at different speeds:

Water at 1/500

Water at 1/250

Water at 1/125

Water at 1/60

Water at 1/30

Water at 1/15

Water at 1/8

Water at 1/4

These shots were at the base of Yosemite Falls at 7:55AM on Friday, 16 May 2014, snapped with a hand-held Fuji X-T1 and Fuji 55-200mm lens at 156mm.

 

Ocean waves crashing will looks like wispy white strokes with exposures of about 1/4 second:

La Jolla coast south of the Children's Pool

Coastline south of La Jolla's Children's Pool.

I shot this in about 1990 with a Graflex Crown Graphic, 135mm f/4.7 Wollensak Optar on Fuji Velvia 4x5" film.

 

Kohlmar St

I shot this with a Linhof Technika IV, 150mm f/5.6 Schneider Convertible on Fuji Velvia 4x5" film.

 

For ocean waves, even longer exposures like a few minutes will make the water look like fog:

La Jolla coastline at dusk

The Secret Coast.

This was shot on 4x5" Fuji Velvia back around 1990 I believe on a Crown Graphic 4x5" press camera with a 135mm f/4.7 Wollensak Optar lens.

In this shot, it was just waves crashing on a normal evening, and the long exposure transformed it into something quite different.

 

Help me help you        top

I support my growing family through this website, as crazy as it might seem.

The biggest help is when you use any of these links when you get anything, regardless of the country in which you live. It costs you nothing, and is this site's, and thus my family's, biggest source of support. These places have the best prices and service, which is why I've used them since before this website existed. I recommend them all personally.

If you find this page as helpful as a book you might have had to buy or a workshop you may have had to take, feel free to help me continue helping everyone.

If you've gotten your gear through one of my links or helped otherwise, you're family. It's great people like you who allow me to keep adding to this site full-time. Thanks!

If you haven't helped yet, please do, and consider helping me with a gift of $5.00.

As this page is copyrighted and formally registered, it is unlawful to make copies, especially in the form of printouts for personal use. If you wish to make a printout for personal use, you are granted one-time permission only if you PayPal me $5.00 per printout or part thereof. Thank you!

 

Thanks for reading!

 

 

Mr. & Mrs. Ken Rockwell, Ryan and Katie.

 

Home  Donate  New  Search  Gallery  Reviews  How-To  Books  Links  Workshops  About  Contact

 

30 September 2018, May 2014