http://www.australianlight.com.au/blog/post/creating_misty_water
Many people have asked me how to create the "mist like" sea effect seen here....
Well this is really quite simple and requires only one piece of specialised equipment... a tripod!
The technique is called "dragging the shutter", that is making the camera shoot a loooong exposure time on purpose. (In this case it was 6 seconds)
This long exposure means that the ocean waves had time to move up over the rocks and move back out again. So the camera has seen the white water on top and also the rocks underneath. The resulting image is then a bit of both and it looks like mist.
Why the tripod? I am glad you asked.... naturally we need to hold the camera very still during the exposure, or else everything in the shot would be blurred.... we are happy to allow the waves to move, as this is creating the effect we are after, but if the rocks moved it wouldn't look so good would it. lol
But how do we make the camera take such a long exposure? Firstly you need to drive the camera manually. Leaving your cam on full automagic is not going to do the trick, as it naturally wants to shoot as short an exposure as possible to avoid blur due to camera movement.
So get off auto and give either Manual (you set shutter speed and aperture and watch your light meter for correct exposure), Shutter Speed Priority (you set the shutter speed - in this case long - and the camera sets the aperture that suits), or Aperture Priority (you set the aperture and the camera sets the shutter speed - in this case you will need to select an aperture that lets in little light - eg a BIG f-number - and this will force the camera to compensate with a long shutter speed)
In all of these cases there will be limitations on just how long a shutter speed you can make your camera do, as this will be governed not only by the characteristics of your camera, but also how much available light there is at your location. So a shot like this is harder to do at midday, than it is to do just before sunrise or sunset. This does not mean that it can't be done at midday, but some extra equipment eg Neutral Density Filters may be required, but we will talk about them later.
Cheers
Rusty
Australian Digital Photo Of The Day: http://www.potd.com.au
Photography help for beginners - Film & Digital Camera Techniques - Post Processing - Photography tips and tricks - Long Exposures
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