A slow shutter speed of half a second has blurred the water.
Choose the right shutter speed to shoot waves
Techniques
24 October 2007 12:55
From a dreamy and ethereal sea mist to a wave-curl crisply frozen by a blip of flash, shooting waves is a great way to bring out your creativity.
Look out for interesting features such as rocks and sea groynes to help anchor your composition. Getting down low using a wide-angle lens and including plenty of space in the foreground also helps, but watch out for large waves and check tide times to make sure you’re not cut off from main land.
A tripod is essential for slow shutter speed shots at the beach. Yet with water lapping around the legs of the tripod it’s all too easy for the camera to move during your exposures, so try wedging its spiked feet into the sand slightly. Or, shoot from the safety of rocks to help to keep things steady. The camera’s self-timer or a cable release can also prevent any camera shake inadvertently caused by pressing the shutter.
The lower light levels early or late in the day will allow you to use a wider range of slow shutter speeds without having to use any filters to reduce the amount of light reaching your camera’s sensor.
Choosing the right shutter speed is key to great wave images. The longer the shutter speed, the smoother and more blurred the water will be. For shooting the gently breaking waves in our main image we used a one-second exposure. Thanks to the low light levels we were able to achieve this using an aperture of f/11.
You may not get the shot exactly right first time: the sea never behaves exactly the same way twice. Instead take plenty of shots, and experiment with your shutter speeds.
If you’re close to the sea and the wind has made the waves fast and choppy, try shutter speeds of around 1/2 to 1/8sec. For more distant shots you’ll need a longer shutter speed to record the sea as a blur – say between two and 15 seconds or more. To record the swirls and eddies of the water in rock pools and shallows, try using shutter speeds of 2 to 10 seconds.
You’ll need to work in the low light levels at dawn or dusk, or a strong ND filter, to achieve the exposure times necessary for this effect. With long, slow shutter speeds you can also start to blur the movement of clouds, adding an extra element of drama to your shots.
In bright daytime conditions you won’t be able to shoot at slow shutter speeds, so try using shorter shutter speeds instead, such as 1/125sec or shorter, to freeze large waves crashing onto the shore.
You can also use neutral density (ND) and polarising filters to cut down the amount of light and thus achieve longer exposures. ND filters are simply pale grey/opaque filters that stop some of the light reaching the film or sensor. They come in a range of strengths, ranging from 1 stop (called either a ND x2 or ND0.3) to 3 stops (ND x8 or ND0.9).
Polarising filters will cut out between 1 and 2 stops of light, depending on the rotation of the filter. This filter will also cut through the reflections from the surface of the water.
Don’t be afraid to get wet. Using wide-angle lenses for dramatic water shots means getting up close to the waves. For our shot the waves were small and posed no real risk, so filling the bottom of the frame with the movement of the waves meant actually standing in the water.
As with any location, put your own safety first. Don’t venture into the water when the sea is rough – shoot from a distance with a longer lens instead. Wear waterproof footwear and always wash any salt water off your tripod immediately after the shoot.
