How to get the 'misty' look on water when taking photos?
I Have a Nikon D60 camera and am struggling to get the 'misty' look on water when taking photos. I have tried altering the shutter speed whilst using a tripod but still can't gain the affect. I'd be grateful if someone could recommend the settings to use. I have had my Nikon a year now and this is one scenario I can't achieve yet.
Breathe on the lens and shoot fast. Seriously.
Long exposure.
anything from a couple of seconds to 20-30 seconds depending on the effect and type of water (i.e.fast flowing or relatively still).
During the daytime you will need a neutral density filter to enable you to get the correct exposure overall.
for instance this one was 20 seconds
check out the exif on some of the images in this group
to see different effects etc.
Use a polarizer or neutral density filters, low ISO, 100 or less if your camera has it and a small f-stop, like 16 or 22.
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Use a tripod too and a cable release.
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What you want to do is take a time exposure in the daylight so you have to hold back light in order to get a few seconds worth of exposure but not over expose the image.
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At night the long exposure can get star trails, car lights and other bright things as streaks when they move. In this case, water, it can be made to look like fog or mist if one can achieve the time exposure in the day light and not over expose the image. Hence, and filters. Get a 4x or maybe a 8x and expose away…
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You need to do a long exposure - trouble is, in daylight, long exposures will over exposure the image (too much light).
To overcome this you need a neutral density filter (and) to reduce the light getting into the lens. They come in different densities (stops) according to how much light they stop.
Shoot at around ISO 100, and an aperture of f16 - you'll find that even on a cloudy day you'll probably get shutter speeds of around 1/60 - this is not enough to blur water.
You want a shutter speed of maybe 1/4 sec or even less. That's a 4 stop increase in light, so you'd need a 4 stop and filter. It's best to have a couple (say a 4 stop and a 6 stop) - they can be stacked (up to a point) so that would give you 3 possible combinations.
You need to buy the right filter size for the end of your lens - it should be marked in mm on the end of the lens (near the filter thread).
The shutter speed direction is the right one, it's just you need to go to some extreme shutter speeds to achieve the sort of thing you want. Normally two or three seconds starts to get you the type of appearance you desire. For that you will need an and filter, and probably quite a strong one. You'll also find that a good and filter is rather expensive, so you may save money if you get a welding filter, cokin P-size holder and a stepping ring.
I would suggest having a look at this group on flickr, it's all about how to use a welding filter to achieve extremely long exposures during the day. You can easily get to five minutes with one of these things. This is what you can get during the day time.
In the evening, away from the sun you can usually get the type of exposures you want without filters, here an exposure of 2 seconds is easily achievable.