Challenge - Water

Challenge Topic: Water

Posting Date: Saturday, August 10, 2013

Online Background Information:

• Top ten techniques for photographing water
• Nine tips for photographing water
• How to use and buy polarizing filters

Additional Tips and Suggestions:

We’ve had several challenges that have tested and refined your photography skills. So now it’s time for a topic that is less demanding – water. This subject matter is very broad, allowing you to creatively decide how to address it. Examples of photo shoots include outdoor water sources, such as lakes, rivers, waterfalls, and fountains. If action shots are of interest, then investigate water sport activities in your area. With rainfall being plentiful in many parts of the globe right now, rainy and foggy scenes would be good candidates. The topic of water also lends itself to indoor photography. Don’t be afraid to experiment and capture some images that are outside of your comfort zone and normal shooting mode.

Of course, proper focus and exposure of the subject matter are paramount. Be aware that glare on water can fool your camera’s metering system. So don’t be content with shooting in a fully automatic mode. Make manual exposure compensation adjustments. Shoot a series of photos with different exposures settings and look at the results. Adjust accordingly. If you don’t know how to do exposure bracketing, it’s time to get out that camera manual!

For outdoor shots, use a polarizing filter to reduce glare. If your camera does not allow the use of lens filters (e.g., point and shoot), try covering the lens with a pair of clean polarizing sunglasses. For optimum polarization, the sun should be at a 90-degree angle (i.e., at your side, not in front or behind you). Keep in mind that a polarizing filter will affect the camera’s exposure setting.

Instructions:

Prepare one to four of your own photographic images of water. You may take new photos or use ones in your archives, although it would be preferable to take at least one new image for this particular challenge. Please include any information or tips that may be of assistance to other participants (e.g., how you took the images, post-processing details, camera settings, what you learned).

The linkup tool will be available the day before the challenge date (August 9) and a couple days thereafter. Don’t forget to set up a calendar reminder for yourself!