How do you get cotton water effect in daylight?

Hi all, how does one get that cotton looking waterfall look in broad daylight? I know how its done with lower light. I usually go to tv mode and slow the shutter speed down. But in daylight, I can't get that effect. I normally shoot in AV mode and if I slow the shutter down too much, the shot is way over exposed. Do i need to go to manual and play with settings? I'm just not familiar or experienced enough with M mode.

thanks

Use a Neutral Density Filter (or a few stacked). And Manual is the way to go, but Av can also work just fine.

Exactly right. And something I'm looking into at the moment.
I bought a graduated ND filter (in order to reduce the sky brightness), an ND8 and also an ND400. I can stack these with a circular polariser too in order to REALLY slow the shutter.

I went out about a week or so ago with the ND400 in bright sunlight but I didn't get the effect I was after. I wanted to get this cotton-water effect like I have done in the past at dusk - but I did get something from the day.

Lowest ISO you can go to (100 usually) - slowest shutter speed that the correct exposure will allow, around 1/4 or 1/8th sec usually works for me but it depends on the effect you are after (using 'M' doesn't help one bit, It's still got to be properly exposed!)

Neutral Density filter or filters (you can stack them).
A polarizer will also give you 1-2 stops

Shoot on an overcast day

The same thing came up here: https://photography-on-the.net …/showthread.php​?p=5391794
a few hours before your post.

Wow, the whole filters thing has me somewhat confused. From my understanding, certain filters will allow you to slow the shutter a lot more bye Letting less light into the camera? Do the ND filters come in packs so you can stack them? And how much does a quality set run?

You can get a variable neutral density filter (the Vari-ND) from Singh-Ray which varies from 2 stops to 8 stops. If you want more ND, you can then add their 5 stop "Mor-Slo". With this combination you can expose several minutes in bright daylight.

Be warned - Singh-Ray is very pricey but I find their filters worth it.

> certain filters will allow you to slow the shutter a lot more bye Letting less light into the camera?

Exactly. Its like one of those filters you use on telescopes to look directly at the sun. Exactly the same principal - its like a pair of sunglasses for your lens

> Do the ND filters come in packs so you can stack them?

Yes you can stack them - they have threads on both sides so you could stack 50 of them if you wanted.

> And how much does a quality set run?

Prices - in the UK you can walk into a high street store and buy up to an ND8 for under £30.
Darker ones are generally more speciallist and I got my ND400 from China through eBay for about £35 (same for the graduated ND filter).

tiktaalik wrote in post #5394664
You can get a variable neutral density filter (the Vari-ND) from Singh-Ray which varies from 2 stops to 8 stops. If you want more ND, you can then add their 5 stop "Mor-Slo". With this combination you can expose several minutes in bright daylight.

Be warned - Singh-Ray is very pricey but I find their filters worth it.

OMG. that is an awesome link.

i can't beleive those filters cost so much. . I guess i'm stuck to wait until dawn to get the affect i want for a while.

As others have mentioned, low ISO, slow shutter speed, possible use of polarizing and/or ND filters etc.

I took the photograph below during a bright, sunny late July morning with my Canon EOS A2 film camera on Velvia 50 slide film. I used a 3 stop ND filter, and of course my camera was tripod mounted. I used a shutter speed of I believe 2 to 4 seconds.

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Nobody mentioned to use your smallest aperture opening as well

Sgt. wrote in post #5406496
Nobody mentioned to use your smallest aperture opening as well

True to a point. Diffraction is your enemy when using small apertures. Use an ND filter and you don't necessarily have to stop right down.

Sgt. wrote in post #5406496
Nobody mentioned to use your smallest aperture opening as well

No, but by the very nature of the problem - too much light, I think we are kinda' assuming that the OP can't go any smaller, and as horrgakx just pointed out ^^^^ , you don't always want to, or have to, use the min aperture - by using ND's you can open up a bit and use something around f/8 and still get a slow enough shutter speed.

Canonswhitelensesrule wrote in post #5403898
As others have mentioned, low ISO, slow shutter speed, possible use of polarizing and/or ND filters etc.

I took the photograph below during a bright, sunny late July morning with my Canon EOS A2 film camera on Velvia 50 slide film. I used a 3 stop ND filter, and of course my camera was tripod mounted. I used a shutter speed of I believe 2 to 4 seconds.


Here is the same waterfalls/river taken a few seconds later using a fast (1/2,000th) shutter speed.:

Is it me or do these photos have a heavy blue cast to them? My monitor is not calibrated BTW.

Angry Dad wrote in post #5408314
Is it me or do these photos have a heavy blue cast to them? My monitor is not calibrated BTW.

The "cotton candy" effect photo does have a blue cast to it, which I actually like. It makes the water appear more "soft" and "cool". At least IMHO.

The second one doesn't have that much of a blue cast.