Should water look natural in photography?

[AnneBennett]

I have wondered recently why so many photos I have noticed in many magazine have the water looking very milky. I know how it is achieved, is it just the fashionable technique of the moment? I have to say I prefer a more natural looking water and less milky. I wonder what others think? I suppose it's all a matter of preference?

[silversnapper1]

Milky for me.

Steve.

[ABERS]

Should water look natural in photography? It's all in the eye of the beholder.

It's one of those fads that will pass as time goes by. A few years ago you couldn't move for pictures that showed one sharp static subject with everything else in the frame showing blurred movement. Overdone HDR seemed to rule the roost a year or so ago with photographers boasting how many exposures were taken to produce the finished image.

The magazines pick up on a particular type of image, the readers see it and have a go trying to emulate or better it. The only creative person is the one that makes the first image, all the others are the dedicated followers of fashion.

Search back through the photographic archives and find a forgotten technique that hasn't seen the light of day for many a year, make a decent fist of using it, get a magazine to publish it and BINGO you'll be the greatest thing since sliced bread.

Martin Parr said recently we are all taking cliches. True, and it's about the only thing that he has said that makes sense!

P.S. I'm still scratching about in the archives.

Last years POTY had heaps of 'milky'water shots

To my mind there is a balance:-

Too milky and the water takes an almost solid bland form, rendering the view of awful plastic or pollution etc., which to my mind renders an image to dissapoint, unless you are highlighting the aspect of polluted water!.

While 'a touch of milk' highlighting the flow, atmosphere, or rythmn of a river or sea, with some areas of clear water and sparkle that shouts, wet shiny water, can turn a normal scene into something a little more special, simply as the scene starts speaking, tells a story to the viewer.

[OldBoy]

Originally Posted by AnneBennett

I have wondered recently why so many photos I have noticed in many magazine have the water looking very milky. I know how it is achieved, is it just the fashionable technique of the moment? I have to say I prefer a more natural looking water and less milky. I wonder what others think? I suppose it's all a matter of preference?

Quite agree, as I prefer movement in water with water drops frozen in the air.

[AndyStevens]

I think it's a personal preference - but also the subject matter can make a big difference, or even a different view of the same subject. For example;

Here I used a longer exposure to get milky water as I thought it showed better the different textures in the shot - milky water, rounded stones/pebbles and jagged rocks.


But here, the same rocky ledge at Kimmeridge but from a different angle, and a sense of movement in the water works better (in my opinion). I did try a longer exposure but the milky effect didn't work. Think I'm also lucky in that the breaking wave acts as a subtle lead-in line from bottom right towards Clavell's Tower - which I wouldn't have got with milky water.


Cheers
Andy

[GeoffWessex]

When I got 're-acquainted' with photography about five years ago I started seeing lots of the milky water.... quite liked it at first but it gradually became the standard and a bit boring. So do I go back to the 'frozen water'? Not really - it just depends on the mood or feeling that's being conveyed. Sometimes it's the apparently flat calm sea, sometimes the glistening, 'frozen in time' flow of a river.... all subjective. I notice that today's 'Picture of the Day' photographer, Chester, has a good mixture - he's an excellent photographer, well worth looking through his albums.

[Jediboy]

For me it depends on the photo. Different 'types' of water can add a different atmosphere to the image. So I think milky and still both have their place.

[AnneBennett]

Thanks for all the replies so far, please keep them coming. They are all appreciated. Interesting what you say Andy that if it is too milky it becomes' like a solid band form', I was trying to think of a way to describe it, I think then it can spoil the rest of the image. Sometimes it works to slow the exposure slightly a tricky balancing act?I wonder what the next fashion will be?

[AndyStevens]

Next fashion? Streaky, apparently racing clouds as in today's POTD - well,that's judging by the sudden increase in variety and sales of 10-stop ND filters.

But milky water and streaky clouds are my preference over heavily processed HDR - but that's another thread