Rocks Floating on Clouds

Rocks Floating on Clouds
Originally uploaded by jezza323

This is an old shot I thought I would share. It may not be immediately obvious to everyone how you get this effect of the cloud-like water.

This effect comes from the movement of the water during a long shutter exposure. In this case it is also accentuated by blending 2 shots together, similar to a HDR.

This was shot using the Pentax K200D and Pentax SMC DA 18-55 AL II lens. I also used TianYa ND8 filter and TianYa ND8 grad filters in a Cokin P holder. These filters block out light, so allow you to use longer shutter speeds, and enhance the cloud-like effect.

To get my 0, -2 EV images which I later blended, I set my camera to bracketing mode, and +/- 2.0 EV steps. I have also set my camera to shoot those steps in 0, -2, +2 order. For this shot the sky was becoming a bit blown out when getting the exposure I was after for the foreground, so I set the base exposure to what I wanted for the foreground, then shot 0 and -2 EV only (I didn't bother shooting the 3rd bracket).

In Photomatix there is the option of "Exposure Blending" as opposed to "Generate HDR". I selected this option, my 2 images, and the Average method.