Blurring Water: The 5 Essentials You NEED to Know!

Today on The Slanted Lens we are traveling to Zion to join Cheyne Walls, the award-winning landscape photographer! He’s going to teach us his 5 Essentials for Blurring Water!

Click HERE to watch the whole video!

So why blur water?!

The great thing about landscape photography is you don’t have to do anything. But a really fun way to add to your image is moving the water and creating something that you can’t see with the human eye.

Here are Cheyne’s 5 Essentials to Blur Images!

1: You NEED a Tripod

The camera can not move. It must be completely stationary.

Bonus – it would be nice to have a cable release.

2: You NEED to have a longer shutter speed!

You need less light coming into the camera, so you have a second or two or more to let the water flow through and the camera can capture the movement of the water.

3: Low ISO

4: Neutral Density (ND) Filter and Polarizing Filter

That again lets less light into the camera, creating for longer exposure and more motion in the photograph.

Click to enter to win 1 of 3 Vanguard Tripods!

5: Correct Lighting Conditions

You can’t go out in the direct sun and hope to get blurry water images. You need the light to be a little bit softer, open shade, sunrise/sunset, to have the correct conditions to make it work correctly.

Here are Cheyne’s go-to camera settings:

ISO 100 or less
set filters
tripod
shoot different shutter speeds

If you’re shooting Niagara falls and shoot at 100^th of a second, you’re still getting blur, but if you’re at a stream or smaller waterfall like this, I would try to get over 2 seconds because the water is not moving all that fast. The longer the camera is open, the more motion you’re going to see.

What makes the motion more startling?

You want something that is sharp and not moving to contrast the water. When you have a rock or tree, it gives you a solid base for the photograph, which puts more emphasis on the water.

Those are Cheyne’s 5 Essentials for Blurring Water, which he has used and refined over the year to become an award-winning photographer with amazing gallery type images!

We’re selling a download that will help you learn and apply these steps. Click now to advance your landscape photography skills and learn how to go from amateur to a pro landscape photographer!