How to photograph sea waves

[rjalex]

I am very disapponted by some pics I have shot ov a very strong sea hitting rocks and causing enormous splashes (sorry for my approx. english).

I discovered that the 1/320 shutter speed was not fast enough to really freeze the spray.

Also the luminance dynamic range of the white sprays with the dark sea and sky (polarizer at max) and the almost black rocks, killed my pics (shot in RAW).

Any suggestion for future occasions ?

Thanks,
Bob

[Pete]

Try taking your shots either later or earlier in the day. If you're taking shots in the middle of the day in strong sunlight, you'll easily get what you're explaining here.

Doing the same in twilight will mean that you have less light, and less dynamic range in the composition. Hopefully, that might help the overall exposure.

[DrPablo]

If you're shooting under bright conditions, 1/500 or 1/1000 should be a simple setting to achieve, and that's plenty fast enough to freeze the droplets.

When it's bright out you're going to have specular highlights on the waves that are essentially pure reflected sunlight. That's beyond the dynamic range of anything, and those will always blow out. But there's nothing wrong with that as long as the rest of the scene is well exposed.

[Glenn NK]

If you're shooting under bright conditions, 1/500 or 1/1000 should be a simple setting to achieve, and that's plenty fast enough to freeze the droplets.

When it's bright out you're going to have specular highlights on the waves that are essentially pure reflected sunlight. That's beyond the dynamic range of anything, and those will always blow out. But there's nothing wrong with that as long as the rest of the scene is well exposed.

"The specular highlights are reflected sunlight" - therein lies the answer.

Because they are so small, our eyes can handle the bright light, but if they were the size of a vehicle window - well you know what the result would be.

Of course, the sensor will pick these up as blown out areas.

Shooting earlier/later may alleviate the problem somewhat, but if the sun hits the spray directly, it won't help much. And with less overall light, higer ISO will be required to compensate while still keeping shutter speed high.

[cosworth]

Seomtimes a little motiob blur adds to the wave shot.

I have shot a lot of water but don't blow the water highlights at all. Are you shooting in M to experiment?

http://www.jasonhollister.com/images/northwestpoint6.jpg

[RTMiller]

This was a little OOF but at 1/400 it stopped the drops.

http://rtmiller.smugmug.com/photos/35816834-L.jpg