 BetterPhoto Member |
Waterfalls How should I meter to find out how to set my f stop for waterfalls. I want to show motion in the water and will set my speed for 15 or 30 of a sec. Should I meter on the water, rocks, trees, or gray card. Have not been please with my pictures..
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Jeff S. Kennedy |
The easiest way (besides an incident meter) is to meter off of a mid tone. This could be foliage or a rock. Since you say 15 or 30 of a second I assume you mean 1/15 or 1/30th of a second. That shutter speed will show blur in the water (assuming the water is moving across your field of view and not towards or away from you). IMO slightly blurred water is unattractive. I prefer to either stop the motion entirely or have the silky water and that usually requires 1 to 2 seconds. If you do go for longer exposures keep in mind that some films suffer reciprocity failure even at 1-2 second exposures and that exposure and color compensation may be necessary.
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Jordan |
Jeff, what exactly occurs when a film suffers reciprocity failure? I have intentions of using Konica Impresa 50 for water shots of 2 seconds or more. At this page: http://konicaminolta.com/products/consumer/photo/pdfe/pdf/IMP50.pdf it says for 1/10000 - 1 second that no exposure compensation or color filters are needed, but when it jumps to 10 seconds it says to compensate +1/2 stop for exposure and nothing for color. If I was doing a 3 second shot would I need to compensate? Thanks, Jordan F.
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Jeff S. Kennedy |
Yeah, you would most likely need to compensate. At longer (and sometimes extremely short) exposures some film does not behave consistent with its ISO rating. It requires longer exposure and sometimes color correction. Its best to just bracket your exposures and take notes so you know how much to compensate in the future.
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Bob Cammarata |
Art, On the issue of metering, mid-tones or a gray card will work if it's cloudy or if you are shooting in deep shade. It the sun is out and it is shining on an area of frothy rapids, meter the brightest part of the rapids, and open a half-stop over that setting. A polarizer or ND filter will help slow down your shutter speed settings on sunny days.
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