How do you get that milky effect in water.?

[Matthew Forrest]

Ive been try to take shots of water and get a milky effect,however My images just seem to end up over exposed,Ive got two nd8 filters and stacked them together but still no joy?Can anyone give recommendations?Or advise on what im doing wrong ??

Any advice would be brill.

Cheers

Matty....

[BillyJeans]

Hello Matthew, the way to get the milky effect your after is to use a long exposure of around 10 secs but experiment with the timing and you will have to adjust your aperture to allow for it not over exposing its all a matter of trial and error with the exposures .Hope this helps

[GeoffWessex]

If you use a full Auto mode, the camera may just be making adjustments to the aperture, shutter speed and even ISO to capture what it 'thinks' is a good exposure.

Aperture Priority is a better way to go..... keeping to a low ISO, stop down to around f/16 and you'll immediately see the shutter speed slow to perhaps a quarter or half a second..... still not good enough to extend the 'open shutter' time, so that's where the ND filter comes in. In theory, the ND8 filter will force the camera to give three stops more exposure - in this case the shutter opens three times longer so, if a 'straight' exposure at f/16 was a quarter of a second, three stops more gives a 2 second exposure (each stop doubles the time so, starting at 1/4th, 1 stop gives 1/2sec, 2 stops gives 1 sec, 3 stops gives 2 secs). Still not enough to give the full 'milky' water effect but would work ok.

Still not working? Longer exposure times can baffle the exposure of some cameras.... it can get 'lost' past one second. So stay with Aperture Priority and set your 'straight' exposure, without filter, at f/16 and see what the shutter speed will be. (You could try it at f/22 as well, but you can run into focus problems at such a small aperture). Whatever the shutter speed given, add three stops, go to the Bulb mode, replace your ND8 filter and try again with the same aperture - but this time making your own timings. (I take it you're using a tripod and remote shutter release?)

As <b>BillyJeans</b> says, sometimes you have to rely on trial and error - keeping a note of what you're getting in the camera's histogram and/or playback.

[Matthew Forrest]

Hi Geoff

You seem to know what your talking about,im using manual mode,and yes a tripod and remote release,im setting my camera up with the filters already in place,i tried F16 at 10 secs and an iso of 16 but at that the shot ended blown out,i tried to salvage it in camera raw but too far gone,I take it i will have to just play around as billyjeans said,Should i maybe use different filters??

Thanks for your comments so far guys.

[Cutter]

Originally Posted by Matthew Forrest

Ive been try to take shots of water and get a milky effect,however My images just seem to end up over exposed,Ive got two nd8 filters and stacked them together but still no joy?Can anyone give recommendations?Or advise on what im doing wrong ??

Any advice would be brill.

Cheers

Matty....

have you got the ability on your camera for shutter priority? if so settin the camera for about 5 to 10 seconds and letting the camera set its own app, is ample for milky effect ?

[Matthew Forrest]

Hi Cutter

Yes I do have shutter priority,Im just about to set out and take a few shots,ill post my results on critique for some comments.Practice shall hopfully make perfect!!

[Cutter]

Originally Posted by Matthew Forrest

Hi Cutter

Yes I do have shutter priority,Im just about to set out and take a few shots,ill post my results on critique for some comments.Practice shall hopfully make perfect!!

Good luck, use a slow shutter speed and make sure your iso is at its lowest. look forward to seeing your results.
Ps if its a good one put it into this weeks competition before 12pm tomorrow in the competition thread.

[Matthew Forrest]

Hi Mark

Ive taken a shot,it seems good,well at least it isnt blown out!!I took it in shutter priority as you said with a low iso,thanks for your advice!!I take it your talking about the comp for "what pleases you"??

Matthew

[ianpinion]

Hi Matty,

How fast is the flow of the water you're trying to get the milky/silky effect in? If the water is flowing fairly quickly, you may be able to get this effect by leaving the shutter open for just 1 - 2 seconds. If the water is moving quite slowly, then you may have to wait until the light levels drop a little before you get your shot. It's always best to attempt these types of shots when its cloudy and find a shaded location to cut the amount of available light entering the lens.

My other tip would be to check your histogram as you're setting up the shot to see if the values are too far over to the right or use the highlight/shadow clipping warning to guide you towards the correct exposure.

[GeoffWessex]

You know, I almost never use Shutter Priority - and now I've learned a valuable lesson about how to use it for these effects! Thanks Cutter ! There again, how anybody gets an ISO of 16 is baffling me.