Thread: Long water exposures with the EM5

EM5, kit lens, no filter, multiple shots stacked as layers and screened


Rapids by Photos By 夏天, on Flickr


Rapids by Photos By 夏天, on Flickr


Rapids by Photos By 夏天, on Flickr

Originally Posted by tdp

EM5, kit lens, no filter, multiple shots stacked as layers and screened

I'm not following this. I understand working with layers, but how is this effect achieved by layering multiple shots?

underexpose a few shots by -.7 to -1
create a layer stack in Photoshop with each individual image on a layer
leave the base layer alone
the next layers set blend mode to screen, adjust level to taste


Then I like to add contrast via all or some of these: curves layer, dodge/burn, soft light layer. Finally I sharpen and export.

Very nice photos.

I may give this a shot..... I had never heard of this technique and I'm usually too lazy to haul the tripod along or I forget the ND filter. Thanks for the details.

Wouldn't a few shots need over exposure to slow the water down?

Originally Posted by Djarum

Wouldn't a few shots need over exposure to slow the water down?

All you need to do to make the water look fluid is have a slow shutter speed. You can do that with ND filters, stopping your lens down, low ISO or merely a rather low lit situation. Even at a low ISO, a long exposure time will result in some noise. Playing with all the options above and your particular camera will result in finding what works best for you. With very rapid water and the magic of image stability, you can even pull it off handheld if you have a steady hand. Its digital, so mistakes are easily deleted :)

At 30 seconds, ISO 200 and a variable ND filter set to pretty dark I got the motion results I wanted but I got some noise. Not too bad, but I am interested in perfecting my water shots with the EM5 so I can tuck that technique away in my photo bag of tricks. I later tried shorter exposure times and blended the images together. Not bad either, but not the same amount of motion as the 30 second exposures.

There is a technique where you use Photoshop Extended to stack multiple shots as smart layers and let the computer do the math for the blend, but I do not have the Extended version of Photoshop. Below is a single shot I modified using the Orton effect, something usually used on flowers and people. It turned out ok as well.


Orton by Photos By 夏天, on Flickr

Oh also if you overexpose your digital image the areas of bright white contain no almost no data, recovering detail in those areas with PP is near impossible. Most digital cameras do record a good amount of detail in the dark areas - that data is much easier to recover with software. Due to that, I think it is easier to go dark at the time of exposure then correct later with software. If you wanted to go overexposed then blend them down to the proper darker image, you would want to try the multiply option of your layer blending mode.