Hydro-photography: Top 10 tips for creating compelling water images

Text and photos by Heather Cline 

Water makes up over 70% of our planet and offers never-ending opportunities for photo compositions. It is one of my favorite subjects and I share in this post my top 10 tips for creating compelling water images - plus a free bonus tip!!!

1. Adjust Your Shutter Speed

As a photographer, you have complete control over your settings and adjusting shutter speed can produce vastly different results and feelings in the image. On the left, we have a small waterfall shot with a slow shutter speed (1 second) resulting in a silky blur. This tends to have a more calming effect than faster shutter speeds. The image on the right was shot at 1/30th of a second; just long enough to freeze the motion which lends itself to this nearly monochromatic, graphic image. 

2. Capture Reflections

Water is the mirror of nature. Capitalize on that when you have still water to double the impact of dynamic features like these clouds at sunrise. 

Makewehi Lithified Cliffs, Kauai

3. Consider Different Weather Conditions

Water's surface and behavior will change with the prevailing weather. I'm not sure I have found any "bad weather" for water photography. Five examples of different conditions are shown here. Clear, calm skies create perfect reflections. Clouds reduce glare, make colors pop, and allow for slower shutter speeds. Fog creates a misty, moody effect. Rainy skies tend to create cool-toned monochromatic images. Finally, wind can cause a calm lake to have large waves and white caps. Not fun for swimming, but great for photography. 

4. Look For Leading Lines

Water running through creeks, rivers, or even cracks create nice leading lines that draw the viewer's eye through the image. When you have a blueish cast to the water and a contrasting orange landscape, that's just a bonus!

The Narrows, Virgin River, Zion National Park

5. Get Close

Getting down close to the water's surface helps create separation between the foreground, middleground, and background. This creates a sense of depth and gives the viewer different elements to lead them through the image; similar to leading lines and just as effective. Waterfalls are great subjects for creating this effect. 

Burney Falls

6. Experiment With Different Types Of Light

Light is the most important element in photography and with water's reflective qualities, this becomes an even more important aspect to consider when making an image. Thee three examples illustrate how light changes the color tones and transparency of the water. The image on the left was taken at sunrise, making the water a warm tone that matches the clouds. The middle image was taken at midday, not far from the first image, but is vastly different. We don't often consider this a great time to take photos, but the famous blue water of Lake Tahoe is best seen at this time of day. The photo on the right was taken as the full moon rose at sunset. A rising sun would have created a much harsher lighting effect, so the moon is a great way to experiment with reflections. 

Eagle Falls, Lake Tahoe

Sand Harbor, Lake Tahoe

Moonrise at Mono Lake

7. Try Out Macro

If you have time and patience, you can create some amazing macro images with water. It doesn't require a lot of fancy equipment either. If you have a macro lens, that is great, but if not, you can also use close focusing filters at a low cost or even your smartphone. They make great macro lens attachments for smartphones that work quite well. With their portability and ease of use, you can capture macro water images just about anywhere water is present.

Macro photography does demand paying attention to a couple details:

• Filter out the clutter. Check from edge to edge to make sure everything in the frame is improving the image. If it isn't it's hurting the image, so crop it out before you take the shot. 
• Experiment with different depth of fields. Macro photography tends to have shallower depth of field but if you are shooting with a tripod, you can increase this without worrying about the tradeoffs with longer shutter speed or higher ISO. 

Water drops on glass

Morning dew on blades of grass

Rain drops collecting on reeds

8. Use Filters

Filters are one of the least expensive tools you can buy for photography, and they give you a lot of bang for your buck. The image on the left, taken at sunrise would have been way too bright in the top half of the image and too dark in the lower half. A graduated neutral density filter is darkened on one half and clear on the other to help balance the brightness in the scene. I recommend choosing the rectangular version as opposed to the circular because the rectangular version allows you to move the horizon line up or down depending on the scene. The middle image was taken using a neutral density filter. This filter is completely darkened and is used to cut down on light so you can shoot longer shutter speeds leading to this silky effect. The final image on the right leveraged a polarzing filter. This filter is on my landscape lens nearly all the time because it cuts down on glare (allowing you to see the rocks under the water) as well as helping colors pop. 

Graduated Neutral Density Filter

Neutral Density Filter

Polarizing Filter

9. Look For Abstracts

The way objects reflect in water, particularly near the edges of the day, can result in some nice abstract images. The photo below is the reflection of cliffs on Lake Powell at sunset. The subtle movement in the water is what transformed a straightforward reflection into this abstract. 

Lake Powell cliffs

10. Shoot At Night

You might not consider nighttime to be an ideal time to incorporate water into your compositions, but water is such a great reflector that it helps brighten the foreground, adding interest to a part of the frame that might be lost among a bright starry sky. If you are lucky enough to get a very calm night you might even get start trail reflections. 

Emerald Bay, Lake Tahoe

Mono Lake

Salt Pans, Death Valley National Park

Bonus Tip: Experiment With Different Focal Lengths

When you have a gorgeous scene in front of you, like this one of McWay Falls, the first instinct is to grab the wide angle and capture everything. While that isn't wrong, if you have the time, it's worth zooming in or grabbing that extra lens to try out different compositions at varying focal lengths. You might find the last one you thought to shoot is your favorite. Plus, you will likely have captured the scene in a unique and different way than 99% of the other people who have been ther

35 mm	50 mm	100 mm
200 mm	300 mm

There you have it, 10 (actually 11) tips to capture compelling water images. Chances are, you don't have to venture far to find a source of water to try out some of these techniques so get out there and make magic happen. I'd love to hear how these tips worked out for you. Happy shooting!