Make water look wet

[RodinalDuchamp]

I don't have a particular photo to demonstrate this but the question is how do we make water look wet. I love long exposures as much as the next but the water looks more like silk instead of water. If allowed by admins, let's post the pictures that show the fluidity and unique features of moving water. Please no water drops, droplets, snow, long exposures. Who can make water look wet?

[Vaughn]

This is LF Photography...long exposures come with the territory!

[Rick A]

"Who can make water look wet?"

Whenever I see a photograph involving water it's understood the water is wet, just as in real life. How the water is portrayed is another matter.

[Tin Can]

Tiny creek by TIN CAN COLLEGE, on Flickr

[CreationBear]

That’s a great question—like Vaughn I’m working under canopy, so factoring in reciprocity flowing water has a tendency to turn to froth. One approach you might try is to segment your exposure time into a series of short exposures to get a crisper image—FWIW, John Blakemore took the opposite tack in his series on wind, trying to time multiple exposures with each gust of wind to accentuate the movement of foliage.

[Kevin Crisp]

AA's teaching darkroom in Yosemite had a teaching aid with photos of a vigorously flowing stream, taken at different shutter speeds. I thought the photo that really looked like water with a sense of movement was 1/60th. Everybody else in the class agreed. Not the most popular LF shutter speed to be sure...

[Tin Can]

Too many words

[Kevin Crisp]

Too little punctuation.

[Tin Can]

I apologize to all

I am unraveling a bit here

[Alan9940]

"Who can make water look wet?"

Whenever I see a photograph involving water it's understood the water is wet, just as in real life. How the water is portrayed is another matter.

In a B&W photograph, I believe it's the tonality of the water that can reveal a "wetness." I remember a story that Fred Picker used to tell whereby Paul Cap was visiting Fred, and he was showing Paul a recent picture from one of the many brooks Fred photographed in Vermont. Paul commented that it was a nice photograph, but he needed to return to the darkroom and make the water look wet. No idea how one does that, but after many sheets of paper Fred was apparently satisfied that he got wet water.

On a personal note... I vividly remember visiting an Ansel Adams show at MOMA many years ago where I was standing in front of a picture of a rock in the rushing water below, I believe, Yosemite Falls. I was mesmerized by that photograph and stood absolutely still for an odd length of time! All of a sudden, I realized that I was drooling! The water looked show inviting and refreshing. Was that because it appeared "wet?" Dunno.