Ludlow Falls 1980s 4x5 Norma 90mm F8 SA by Nokton48, on Flickr
Ludlow Falls 1980s 4x5 Norma 90mm F8 Super Angulon HP5 D76 1:1 fiber 8x10 print Fortezo Dektol Omega DII Omegalite
Ludlow Falls 1980s 4x5 Norma 90mm F8 SA by Nokton48, on Flickr
Ludlow Falls 1980s 4x5 Norma 90mm F8 Super Angulon HP5 D76 1:1 fiber 8x10 print Fortezo Dektol Omega DII Omegalite
Flikr Photos Here: https://www.flickr.com/photos/18134483@N04/
“The secret of getting ahead is getting started.”
― Mark Twain
Thad Gerheim
Website: http:/thadgerheimgallery.com
We tested this one year in a class I taught at a local art center. We shot with a 6x6 camera and used a little stream outside as our subject. There were two things we discovered - shooting at 1/30 - 1/125th was optimal but more importantly the angle of light and the ability to provide spectral highlights really made the water "wet". Since that day, I pay very close attention to the reflections. On a similar note, we had one visiting artist who shot everything at long shutter speeds because he believed it made the water look like it had muscles. To each their own.
Transparency helps a lot, as do specular highlights. Water in a thin layer over a rock often looks wetter than a deep pool for this reason. Multiple exposures at a faster shutter speed often look wetter than a single slow one because it captures more droplets and highlights.
One of the wettest appearing things I ever saw was a sheet of black ice. It certainly was not wet, it just looked 'wetter than wet'!
In color work I tend to do water pics with non-matte printing material- sometimes the glossier the better. The glossier medium seems to fit the reflective subject matter better in most of the cases where I have printed water-based images.
More of an attempt to make water look like light...
11x14 Sliver gelatin contact print
"Landscapes exist in the material world yet soar in the realms of the spirit..." Tsung Ping, 5th Century China
Tough one. What water are you talking about? The choppy waves of the sea? The curling surf with spray trailing the waves? Crashing water agains rocks? Slow-moving shallow water? Rain? Water droplets on a blade of grass or a window? So many different ways to approach it and so many places you will find water. I personally get tired really fast of long-exposure water: it doesn't look like water, it doesn't look wet, it looks like an affectation.
At the same time, having spent a lot of my life studying the flow of water (okay...just hanging out along water), I have noticed that moving water is moving. Stopping (freezing it, so to speak), must be an affectation, also. "We stop it because we can."
TC's image works -- especially contrasting water with rock.
Below: Merced River. A long exposure, but the movement is only seen by the streaks of floating bubbles. What speaks of wet water more than a reflection? Transparency also.
"Landscapes exist in the material world yet soar in the realms of the spirit..." Tsung Ping, 5th Century China
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