A version of this article appeared in Australian Photography.
Dreamy long exposures are as core to landscape photography as are brilliant sunrises and sweeping grand vistas.
Yet to create compelling photos of moving water, you need to do more than use ND filters and select slow shutter speeds. (In fact, I typically advise against using filters and the slowest possible shutter speed—more on that soon.) Rather, you need to integrate extra compositional features, test different settings and trial techniques for each scene.
So whether you want to take serene waterfall shots or capture powerful seascapes, this six-part guide is for you.
West Coast, New Zealand. Rugged sea stacks? Tick. Powerful waves? Tick. Not a cloud in sight? Hmmm. With a clear blue sky, I opted for my telephoto lens to simplify the scene, focussing on the rocks and crashing waves. I used a faster long exposure and burst mode to capture the strongest moment of impact.
1) Harness water features as compositional elements
As I was drafting this guide, I began by addressing the gear you’ll need—but I bumped that down. Gear is, understandably, what many other long exposure articles open with. Yet there’s a good chance you’ve heard it all before. Instead, I elevated this tip on composition to reiterate the importance of form and flow through your image.
So here’s the first tip: Don’t settle for a slow shutter speed, smooth water and call it a day.
The key to powerful long exposure photography—like all landscape photography—is taking time to observe and then order the compositional elements in the scene. Thankfully, long exposures often make this task easier by creating leading lines, like clouds streaking overhead or water flowing through the midground.
As an artist, it’s up to you to arrange each element to support the wider scene you’re capturing. So before you plonk down your tripod—and cement your compositional choices—take time to watch how the water moves or crashes through your frame.
Fiordland, New Zealand. Last year, I upgraded from a light travel tripod to a mid-weight tripod—and I sure needed it with this scene. To minimise vibrations from the running water, I pushed the tripod legs deep into the pebbly river bed. This allowed me to frame and capture this sweeping composition over the moving water.
Let’s explore how you might apply these ideas in two typical long exposure locations:
By a river: Look for areas of turbulence as the water flows around boulders or rushes over cascades. Can you position your camera to angle those white water lines up towards a tree, waterfall or point of interest in the background?
By the coast: Look for areas where the waves surge into a channel or where the receding foam trails back to the ocean. These streaks will help lead viewers out to the glorious sunrise or moody clouds beyond the horizon.
2) Get the right gear: Sturdy tripod and remote shutter
Because your camera’s shutter will be open for longer, any moderate vibration will blur your entire frame—not just the moving water. (And unless you want to create more abstract or ICM scenes where the image is intentionally blurry, you’ll still want your other subjects to remain tack sharp.)
So invest in a sturdy tripod, lock the legs and firmly push the feet into the ground so it won’t wobble or shift position. Similarly, pressing your camera’s shutter button will cause some camera shake too. So connect a bluetooth or wired shutter release to avoid unnecessarily touching your camera when it’s time to take the shot.
If you don’t have a remote shutter, a delayed two-second timer works for waterfall scenes where the water movement is predictable. But when the environment is more variable and precise timing is needed—like if you’re capturing wave surges—a remote shutter is key.
One item that might seem glaringly absent in this section on gear? An ND filter.
Minnamurra, Australia. This is another scene where burst mode was my best friend. With each incoming wave, I’d hold down my remote shutter and take five to seven frames. Later on my computer, I sorted through the sequence to select the image with the most pleasing flow.
Neutral density filters are pieces of dark glass that attach to your lens to reduce the amount of incoming light. They allow you to use much longer shutter speeds without overexposing your scene. You might invest in a moderate 3-stop or near black 10-stop ND filter to create cloud streaks or glass-like reflections in the daytime.
Sounds like the perfect gear for long exposures, right? That’s what I thought too.
But I’ve found that carrying, cleaning and using ND filters is cumbersome—and actually prevented me from creating powerful long exposures. (So much so that I haven't used them since around 2016.) Which leads me to my next tip…
3) Don’t (always) use super slow shutter speeds
In the November 2020 issue of Australian Photography, I wrote an article on how Australia’s geography shaped my landscape photography. In the piece, Great Southern Land, I reflected on the influence overseas photographers had on my early development:
On YouTube, British photographers would pull out their pitch-black 10-stop ND filter and smooth out the reflections in a tranquil lake or a calm coastal seascape.
So that’s what I tried down by the rugged Bombo Quarry. However, when applied on the rough Australian coast, all the energy of our coast was lost and so too was the emotional impact. It turned our dynamic coast into a milky bath.
So I did something different:
Where once I’d reach for an ND filter to slow down the shutter, I’ve since embraced ‘fast’ long exposures of 1/4 to 1/10 second. I’ve found that these speeds still retain detail in the moving water, highlighting that sense of motion and energy in the incoming waves.
The tip for this guide? Don’t let your long exposure become too long, losing the action that’s on offer when a wave slams into cliffs or when water rushes down cascades.
The ‘optimal’ shutter speed will vary depending on the water speed, your distance from it—and your preferred long exposure effect. That said, here are some common scenarios and baseline shutter speeds to help you retain that dynamic energy that’s on offer:
Waves crashing on rocks: 1/10 second will freeze the moment of impact like the quills on an echidna.
Waterfall running down a cliff: ½ second will create dreamy streaks while still retaining texture. (A free-flowing waterfall chute may suit a full 1 second exposure.)
River stream rushing around boulders: ¼ second will showcase the natural flow and create leading lines.
One final note on shutter speeds? Be mindful of subjects such as branches, fern fronds and hanging mosses. Even in moderate wind, faster speeds like ¼ second can result in plants and leaves looking blurry—which will create distractions for the viewer.
To overcome this, you might take an additional exposure at around 1/15 second to freeze the moving foliage. Then in Photoshop, you can blend in areas of silky smooth water from the slower frame into the faster frame where everything is tack sharp.
Tomaree National Park, Australia. For all my talk of telephoto details and faster shutter speeds, sometimes a classic wide-angle long exposure is all you need. (Particularly when you’re greeted with sunrises like this one.) Just remember to balance your composition. With the prominent mountain in the top left, I placed these curving rocks in the bottom right of the frame.
4) Use burst mode to capture the perfect frame
This technique—which is helpful when the moment you’re trying to capture is fleeting—is a recent addition to my photography toolkit.
When it came to seascape long exposures, I used to take one frame (maybe two) per incoming wave. But my success rate was too low. I’d walk away from a 30-minute sunrise shoot with perhaps three decent water shots to select from.
Even with a remote shutter, my timing was either too early so I’d miss the strongest flow. Or I’d take the frame too late and miss the peak of the energy and motion.
To overcome this—and bolster your success rate—set your camera to continuous burst mode and connect a remote shutter. A low-to-medium frame rate will be fine for most scenes. But if the waves are striking a cliff or sea stack with force, a more rapid frame rate will ensure you capture the precise moment of impact.
When it’s showtime, simply hold down the shutter button to capture several frames of that one wave as it moves through your composition. Then you can sort through your files at home and select the photo with your favourite flow.
(It goes without saying: You’ll quickly fill your SD card with this rapid-fire technique. But if doing so enables you to walk away with the perfect frame? That’s a fair tradeoff in my books.)
Fiordland, New Zealand. A classic long-exposure scene of running cascades. When I experience a new location, I’m never precisely sure which shutter speed will work best. So when the scene is fairly stable like this (as opposed to an ever-shifting sunrise), I’ll take a range of images at shutter speeds from 1 second through to 1/10 second, varying the aperture or ISO as needed to balance the exposure.
5) Consider the ambient light—and adjust your settings
Long exposures, by definition, leave the shutter open for longer which lets more light into your camera’s sensor. So you need to be mindful not to overexpose your photos—particularly during the day when it’s bright.
So when I capture long exposures that include the sky, I’ll shoot during sunrise and sunset to limit the amount of ambient light in the scene. For a daybreak seascape, you should be able to capture your foreground rocks and water with settings around ISO 100, f/11 and ¼ second. Then you can take a faster, darker frame for the brighter sky.
But what if you want to capture a waterfall during a daytime hike?
You might be able to avoid overexposing your scene with ISO 100, f/22 and ¼ second. But as a tradeoff, using a narrow aperture of f/22 will degrade the sharpness of your image—which isn’t ideal.
My recommendation: Shoot waterfall and river scenes on an overcast day during the early morning or late afternoon. In these conditions, you should be able to use an aperture of f/14 and still retain a sharp image.
One last tip on exposure settings. The white streaks in waterfalls often become strikingly bright—particularly in contrast to darker forest or gully surroundings. To counter this, I’ll deliberately underexpose the photo (by referencing the histogram) by around one stop. Then I can raise the surrounding shadows in Lightroom without blowing out the white water highlights.
6) Mix up your shutter speeds
Shooting on location, under fleeting light, you won’t have time to analyse whether a more frozen or drawn out flow will look more pleasing. So you won’t know which precise fast or slow shutter speed to choose.
The solution? Don’t choose just one—use trial and error to mix up your shutter speeds and take multiple frames. (Generally, slower speeds will complement more dreamy scenes. While faster speeds enhance more energetic scenes.)
Here’s a typical scenario where I still can’t predict what my preferred shutter speed will be. When waves rush around coastal boulders or become funnelled down rock channels. To help guide me, here are two rough rules of thumb I rely on:
When the waves are flowing in: Faster speeds (around ⅕ second) look great to retain texture and showcase the ‘crunch’ in the approaching water.
When the whitewash is flowing back out: Slower speeds (around ½ second) help to stretch those receding leading lines out to the horizon.
In scenes that aren’t so ephemeral—like waterfalls or streams—take time and experiment by trying several shutter speeds. I’ll often photograph most river scenes at ½ second, ⅓ second, ¼ second and ⅕ second. Then when I review the photos later, I can select the frame with the most appealing water streaks.
The Grampians, Australia. For years, when I saw a waterfall, I’d grab a wide-angle lens, position some cascades in the foreground and capture the whole scene. But now, I’ll often first reach for my telephoto lens to isolate patterns or striking features like this jagged rock within the (much) larger falls.
Final thoughts
Like portrait photography or astrophotography, long exposure photography has its own set of specialised skills. And they can take years to learn and master. (As noted in that fourth tip on burst mode, I’m still refining my approach and trying new techniques.)
Yet despite that effort—or perhaps because of it—making a silky smooth long exposure photo can be one of the most satisfying experiences in photography.
It’s the combination of technical know-how, compositional creativity and transitory light that makes the technique such a rewarding pursuit. When it all comes together and you see those sleek lines on the back of your camera, it can be pure joy.
So get out there. Slow down that shutter. (Or speed it up!) And start creating sharp streaks and silky smooth flows.