Flowing Water and Choosing the Shutter Speed

Tuesday 21 July 2026, 15:30 by Nando Harmsen | 1,036 views | 0 comments

This article was translated from Dutch with the help of AI. Read the original.

You can photograph flowing water in many different ways. The shutter speed determines what the photo looks like. Do you choose a fast one, a slow one, an extremely slow one, or something in between? There is no right or wrong, only a choice.

I once stood in front of a room full of enthusiastic photographers talking about photographing water. Naturally, using slow shutter speeds was part of it. Until someone responded that this was not reality.

The gentleman thought you should use fast shutter speeds, because that was how things really were. The response from the room surprised me. Frozen drops hanging in the air are not reality either, someone shouted.

Let's be honest. Photographing flowing water with a shutter speed that is too slow will remove all movement from the water. A shutter speed that is too fast will freeze the movement completely. Neither is real.

Choosing the shutter speed is a personal choice. Choose the shutter speed for the effect you like. It doesn't matter what someone else thinks. It's your choice. There is no right or wrong.

Tastes differ. But that also means you need to think carefully about what you want to show with your photo. Especially with moving water, one second more or less can make a world of difference.

A panorama of Iceland on the evening of our visit to Aldeyarfoss. The movement in the water is the result of a shutter speed of 1/30 second.
I was standing by Aldeyarfoss waterfall just after midnight, together with the participants on my Iceland photography trip. Unfortunately, it was raining, but that's beside the point. How do you photograph the waterfall then? Which shutter speed is best?

You can choose a very fast shutter speed, which is quickly what you do when it rains. The movement of the water can no longer be seen. There is no dynamics left, just a frozen moment in time.

I didn't have a photo with a fast shutter speed (1/100s), except for this smartphone photo. It works for this example.
You can also choose a slow shutter speed. You will no longer see individual drops of water. The movement of the water is stretched into lines. These lines can be used in your composition.

A photo with a 6-second exposure shows the spreading lines of the water.
It is also possible to choose a shutter speed somewhere between slow and fast. This avoids both the movement of the water being stretched into lines and the frozen moment.

An exposure time of 0.5 seconds emphasises the enormous power of the water. There is movement, but not too much.
In this case, I think the last one is the best choice. It emphasises the enormous power of the water as it falls through that narrow opening in the basin. Of course, this choice is personal.

Which version do you like best? Do you like water frozen in time, or water stretched into lines? Perhaps you agree with me and think the middle ground is best in this case.

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