What Shutter Speed to 'Blur' Water?

[Bstanley]

I wandered out to a local 'Gardens' over the weekend and got some very nice shots with my new toy (17-55mm f2.8 IS) of the Spring Flowers but one of the shots didn't work out the way I had hoped.

I was taking pictures of a rock wall/waterfall and just couldn't get the water to 'blur' like I've seen others do.

It was a bright day so I was at a disadvantage I guess - even with an f22 aperture the slowest Shutter Speed I could set and still get a picture was 1/3 second.

So - for those that have been successful at 'blurring' water - what shutter speed is required?

 

[ukcatfan]

If it is bright light, you are going to need a ND filter. I would say that a one second exposure would be fine, but the longer the better.

 

[boBQuincy]

1/4 second to several seconds gives varying degrees of water blur. One "cheating" method if you don't have a ND filter is to layer multiple exposures with reduced opacity (tripod required) or try HDR.

 

[bob100]

I wandered out to a local 'Gardens' over the weekend and got some very nice shots with my new toy (17-55mm f2.8 IS) of the Spring Flowers but one of the shots didn't work out the way I had hoped.

I was taking pictures of a rock wall/waterfall and just couldn't get the water to 'blur' like I've seen others do.

It was a bright day so I was at a disadvantage I guess - even with an f22 aperture the slowest Shutter Speed I could set and still get a picture was 1/3 second.

So - for those that have been successful at 'blurring' water - what shutter speed is required?

I'll agree, in full sun you will need an "ND" neutral density filter for that effect. Or go when it's dark and cloudy and overcast and shoot at f22, ISO 100 on a tripod, you might get some blur

 

[shafke]

Here are some pictures of varying speeds...

1st we start 1/100


1/40


1/13


and finally 1 sec