The Effect of Shutter Speed on the Appearance of Flowing Water

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This article contains interactive aspects that are likely removed by most news readers. Please see this particular article directly on Jeffrey's blog for full functionality.

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Test 1:   2.5 sec 〜 1/60 sec
Animatable — slowly sweep mouse from side to side to view different shutter speeds
写真の上をマウスであちこちにゆっくり動かすといろいろな露出時間の影響を見えます。

1)return true;var x=Math.floor((e.clientX||e.pageX)/BW);if(X==0)X=x;else if(x!=X){var which=x>X?i+(x-X):i-(X-x);if(which>=I.length)which=I.length==2?0:I.length-1;else if(which

I posted some water-flow pics the other day in “A Drenched Visit
to the Kuuya-Taki Waterfall” (空也滝), taken during an outing in which
I'd hoped to miss the rain, but found a rare Kyoto thunderstorm. Since I
had my tripod with me, I did some tests on the effect of shutter speed on
the feeling of water flow.

Swabbing the mouse from side to side over the image above (and all the
images below) causes different frames of each test set to come up, with the
shutter speed in seconds showing in the lower right.

I would have liked to have all tests done with every major shutter-speed
increment between 30 seconds and 1/500th of a second, but I guess I was
just too miserable in the downpour to think that far ahead, and so the
collection is rather haphazard. I'll have to go back on a nicer day with
stronger focus.

Still, I made the tests, and they're at least partially useful, so here we are.

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Test 2:   0.4 sec 〜 1/250 sec
Animatable — slowly sweep mouse from side to side to view different shutter speeds
写真の上をマウスであちこちにゆっくり動かすといろいろな露出時間の影響を見えます。

1)return true;var x=Math.floor((e.clientX||e.pageX)/BW);if(X==0)X=x;else if(x!=X){var which=x>X?i+(x-X):i-(X-x);if(which>=I.length)which=I.length==2?0:I.length-1;else if(which


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Test 3:   1.3 sec 〜 1/125 sec
Animatable — slowly sweep mouse from side to side to view different shutter speeds
写真の上をマウスであちこちにゆっくり動かすといろいろな露出時間の影響を見えます。

1)return true;var x=Math.floor((e.clientX||e.pageX)/BW);if(X==0)X=x;else if(x!=X){var which=x>X?i+(x-X):i-(X-x);if(which>=I.length)which=I.length==2?0:I.length-1;else if(which


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Test 4:   10 sec 〜 1/125 sec
Animatable — slowly sweep mouse from side to side to view different shutter speeds
写真の上をマウスであちこちにゆっくり動かすといろいろな露出時間の影響を見えます。

1)return true;var x=Math.floor((e.clientX||e.pageX)/BW);if(X==0)X=x;else if(x!=X){var which=x>X?i+(x-X):i-(X-x);if(which>=I.length)which=I.length==2?0:I.length-1;else if(which


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Test 5:   2.5 sec 〜 1/13 sec
Animatable — slowly sweep mouse from side to side to view different shutter speeds
写真の上をマウスであちこちにゆっくり動かすといろいろな露出時間の影響を見えます。

1)return true;var x=Math.floor((e.clientX||e.pageX)/BW);if(X==0)X=x;else if(x!=X){var which=x>X?i+(x-X):i-(X-x);if(which>=I.length)which=I.length==2?0:I.length-1;else if(which

The stick is not in the 2.5-second shot because it's the last photo in
the set that I took (though it appears first when sorted by shutter
length), and apparently it's at that point in the set that I decided it
was worth it to climb down and get rid of the ugly stick. So, it doesn't
appear in the next set, nor in the set that leads this post, which I
photographed after this set.

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Test 6:   1/5 sec 〜 1/200 sec
Animatable — slowly sweep mouse from side to side to view different shutter speeds
写真の上をマウスであちこちにゆっくり動かすといろいろな露出時間の影響を見えます。

1)return true;var x=Math.floor((e.clientX||e.pageX)/BW);if(X==0)X=x;else if(x!=X){var which=x>X?i+(x-X):i-(X-x);if(which>=I.length)which=I.length==2?0:I.length-1;else if(which


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Test 7:   20 sec 〜 1/100 sec

(for some reason all at different apertures)
Animatable — slowly sweep mouse from side to side to view different shutter speeds
写真の上をマウスであちこちにゆっくり動かすといろいろな露出時間の影響を見えます。

1)return true;var x=Math.floor((e.clientX||e.pageX)/BW);if(X==0)X=x;else if(x!=X){var which=x>X?i+(x-X):i-(X-x);if(which>=I.length)which=I.length==2?0:I.length-1;else if(which


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Test 8:   8 sec 〜 1/15 sec
Animatable — slowly sweep mouse from side to side to view different shutter speeds
写真の上をマウスであちこちにゆっくり動かすといろいろな露出時間の影響を見えます。

1)return true;var x=Math.floor((e.clientX||e.pageX)/BW);if(X==0)X=x;else if(x!=X){var which=x>X?i+(x-X):i-(X-x);if(which>=I.length)which=I.length==2?0:I.length-1;else if(which


div#dIjxqBPNbPNbocA img { width:690px; height:459px; visibility:hidden; position:absolute; top:0; left:0; border: solid 10px #311}










Test 9:   5 sec 〜 1/20 sec
Animatable — slowly sweep mouse from side to side to view different shutter speeds
写真の上をマウスであちこちにゆっくり動かすといろいろな露出時間の影響を見えます。

1)return true;var x=Math.floor((e.clientX||e.pageX)/BW);if(X==0)X=x;else if(x!=X){var which=x>X?i+(x-X):i-(X-x);if(which>=I.length)which=I.length==2?0:I.length-1;else if(which

The “flow” effect is directly related to the relative movement across
the frame during the exposure, so distance from the camera and water speed
play as direct a role as the shutter speed. Next time I go I'll have to try
the same scene from different distances (or with different zooms) to help
bring those important factors under the umbrella of “experience”....