Blurring Moving Water experiment

[Chrislaf]

I have been experimenting with blurring the water from a tiny stream to simulate the effect of using an ND filter to slow down the shutter speed. This was just an experiment to see if it would work so the photos aren't of the best subject/composition.

Sample 1 - original photo – ISO 100, Exposure time 1/60, -3.0 EV


Sample 1 - Blurred


Sample 2 - original photo – ISO 100, Exposure time 1/10, -0.3 EV


Sample 2 - Blurred


I think Sample 2 worked the best as I was able to choose a slower shutter speed of 1/10 and the water was flowing over rocks.

To get blurring, I shot 10 images of each area and then merged them in photoshop.

Chris

 

[Droning on and on...]

Interesting... Is 1/10 second the longest shutter the neo will do?

It's 100% shutter speed, the ND filter in this application is only there to allow the slow shutter with proper exposure (I know you knew that ).

When I played with creating those slick flowing water shots years ago I found 1/4–1/2 second produced the most pleasing results, subjective of course.

 

[Chrislaf]

Interesting... Is 1/10 second the longest shutter the neo will do?

It's 100% shutter speed, the ND filter in this application is only there to allow the slow shutter with proper exposure (I know you knew that ).

When I played with creating those slick flowing water shots years ago I found 1/4–1/2 second produced the most pleasing results, subjective of course.

Yes 1/10 is the longest the NEO supports. In the second sample the area was much darker than the first sample so I was able to use a longer shutter speed and still keep have the proper exposure. I couldn't do this in the first sample without overexposing the photo. The two photos were taken on a cloudy day.

I have an ND 1000 filter for my Mini 3 Pro specifically for the purpose of blurring water.

I am considering getting a set of ND filters so that I can compensate for the limited shutter speed on the NEO especially when photographing water on bright days.

Chris

 

[GFields]

ND Filters control the amount of light that hits the sensor, therefore, it would work more like controlling the aperture rather than the shutter speed.

 

[Droning on and on...]

ND Filters control the amount of light that hits the sensor, therefore, it would work more like controlling the aperture rather than the shutter speed.

True, but aperture, shutter, and EV all interact to correctly expose the sensor, so shutter can be set to a longer exposure with an ND filter, the goal with blurring flowing water.

With an aperture, this would be done by stopping down. Absent an aperture, an ND filter achieves the same goal, allowing for longer, still correctly exposed captures.

 

[GFields]

True, but aperture, shutter, and EV all interact to correctly expose the sensor, so shutter can be set to a longer exposure with an ND filter, the goal with blurring flowing water.

With an aperture, this would be done by stopping down. Absent an aperture, an ND filter achieves the same goal, allowing for longer, still correctly exposed captures.

My point is that filters have nothing to do with shutter speed

Yes they all play their part in the exposure process but controlling the amount of light comes down to aperture control or in the absence of aperture control the use of filters or if available EV control

My entire point for mentioning it is that it was drilled into my brain by my photography professor.

Now that I have done adjunct teaching in photography I understand why

 

[Droning on and on...]

Chris, another thing to consider is the lack of a 3-axis gimbal... EIS doesn't work for stills, so any stabilizing roll movements will destroy long exposures.

Your mini 2/3/4 is a much better choice for that sort of a composition.

 

[Chrislaf]

Chris, another thing to consider is the lack of a 3-axis gimbal... EIS doesn't work for stills, so any stabilizing roll movements will destroy long exposures.

Your mini 2/3/4 is a much better choice for that sort of a composition.

I was out today in the same area with my NEO. On one side of the trail, I could probably use my Mini 3 Pro as the stream is open, but on the other side, the stream is covered by thick vegetation with only small openings and it is here where the NEO with its fully protected props is ideal. See the images here in my other thread. The second and third shots are in an area where I would never fly my regular camera drones (Mini 3 Pro or Mavic 3 Pro).

Now that the snow is on the ground the images are much brighter than they usually are even on cloudy days, so it is next to impossible to slow the shutter speed to get blurred water without blowing out the photo. Since aperture is fixed at f2.8 and ISO can only go as low as 100, the only way to get blurring is to use multiple images and combine them later in post or to use an ND filter to darken the shot so I can use a slower shutter speed.

Although the multiple image method does simulate blurring water, I find it looks better if you can slow the shutter speed. I don't have any ND filters for NEO at the moment but am considering them for this purpose. The problem is that the darkest ND filter for the NEO seems to be ND64 (6 stops). I'm not sure if this would be enough.

Chris