How to take good photos of streams and waterfalls?

Stream waterfall is one of the important themes of landscape photography. They are sometimes slow and agile, and sometimes magnificent. The photos taken can express many different artistic conceptions. Using different shooting techniques, you can also shoot different effects in the same scene, such as the moment when water splashes, or mysterious water mist.

Equipment preparation and camera setting of stream waterfall

Equipment preparation

Digital Single Lens Reflex Camera

Zoom lens: flexibly change the size of water flow in the picture, which is convenient for composition.

Tripod: Stabilize the camera when shooting slow water.

Cable arrangement: further ensure the stability of the camera.

Medium gray filter: when the light is strong, it weakens the incident light and prolongs the exposure time to obtain the effect of slow water flow.

Camera setting skills

(1) Use shutter priority mode. Water flow is a moving substance, so it is necessary to control the shutter speed first when shooting, so it is better to choose shutter priority mode to shoot. If you want to control the depth of field, a skilled cinematographer can use the full manual exposure mode.

(2) The sensitivity is set below ISO400. If you shoot a stream waterfall in the forest, the light will be dim, so you can set a higher sensitivity, and the sightseeing degree will be controlled below ISO400, so there will be no obvious noise. If there is sufficient light or a slow shutter is used to shoot the water flow, ISO should be set to 100 to reduce the possibility of noise.

Using a slow shutter to shoot, you can shoot the water into a line, which is more feminine. If the light is too strong, reduce the aperture or install a medium gray filter. )

The high-speed shutter captures the splash moment of water flow.

When shooting a raging waterfall or splash, you can use a high-speed shutter to freeze the moment of splash and show the momentum of the waterfall. Use shutter priority mode to shoot, set the shutter speed above 1/500s, and use continuous shooting mode to get the effect of splashing water and flying jade.

If it is cloudy or the highlight in the forest is not enough, and the shutter speed is set too fast, even if the aperture is set to the maximum, it will be underexposed, resulting in a gloomy picture. At this time, the sensitivity of the camera can be appropriately increased, and the shutter speed can be increased by one level for each level of sensitivity increase. If the fast speed is1125s at ISO 100, then the shutter speed of ISO200 can reach1125s, and so on.

The increase of sensitivity increases the probability of noise, but the sensitivity available for general cameras has a boundary. Film friends need to know how sensitive their camera is, so they can set it flexibly when shooting. Like canon EOS

When shooting during the day, the sensitivity of 600D is set below ISO 1600, and there will be no obvious noise, so the photos are available.

(Shoot with a high-speed shutter to freeze the moment when the waves are surging, and the picture is full of dynamic impact. To solidify the splash, the camera shutter speed should be above11000s).

Low speed shutter shooting, silky and foggy.

Slow photography is a pleasure that many people like to try. It can present ordinary things to people with effects that can't be achieved by conventional vision. Shoot running water with a low-speed shutter

, you can record the trajectory of water flow and take pictures as smooth as fog. This technology is suitable for shooting flowing water such as streams, waterfalls and waves.

When the light is particularly strong, even if the aperture is minimized and the sensitivity is adjusted to the lowest, the shutter speed cannot be low enough. At this time, it is necessary to shoot with a medium gray filter.

The medium gray filter is a gray filter that can reduce the light entering the lens. The medium gray filter represented by ND2, ND4 and ND8 can reduce the exposure of the first, second and third gears respectively. For example, the original shutter speed is 1/80s. The shutter speed becomes 1/40s after ND2 filter is installed, and the speeds with ND4 and ND8 become 1/20s and110s respectively. If the shutter speed is not low enough, you can stack it with several gray filters. This can reduce the shutter speed under strong light and achieve the purpose of shooting water at low speed.

If there is no medium gray filter or the light is too strong, even if a filter is used, it will be useless. You can only slow down the running water when the light is weak.

(The flowing water shot by the slow shutter, the original splashing waterfall is as soft as silk under the slow shutter. )

(long exposure makes the traces of water flow clearly appear. )