With the blog I´d like to share some basic information, in particular for newcomers to this exciting hobby.
Today´s topic is: Water flow at a river / creek etc. There are more examples to come in the future: ocean, lake…..
Usually when you take a picture of flowing water, you get the impression, the water has frozen, static.
To get the sensation of flowing you better use a longer exposure time. Question is how during daytime. The answer is, by using a ND filter. ND stands for neutral density. In easy words: ND filters are gray filters available in different gradations or factors.They have no impact on colors. Not to have your images blurred, you better use a tripod. Most of today´s high end cameras manage exposure times up to 60 seconds or even longer. For very long exposures, let´s say 5 minutes or so, you put the camera setting on BULB and use a shutter-release cable.
I´m using HAIDA 77mm diameter ND filters with different gray factors ( ND 0.9 = 8 x; ND 1.8= 64 x; ND 3.0 = 1000 x ). The 77 mm size fits my 77mm diameter lens, the biggest of my fuji lens selection. The adapter rings come in handy when using the filters on my other Fuji lenses with smaller diameters, what is a significant cost saving.
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| They come with a screw on cover for top and bottom | The different gray factors | The stack of reduction rings |
I have chosen a small creek nearby my home. For the establishing shot the light meter said 1/20 of a second.
Already at double exposure time = 0.4 seconds the water is showing first signs of flowing
At 0.7 seconds ist is already flowing. The small waves still keep their shape
At 30 seconds the water looks a little unreal. 
However there is no good or bad.All is part of your personal preferences and the objective
you want to accomplish with the image.
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Same location, same day, same creek. The only change is: Now I´m looking upstream.
The light is quite different, more of a back light. Exposure again reads 1/40 sec.
First signs of movement at 0,4 sec.
The fun starts at o,7 sec.
Here we go at 1.3 sec.
At 30 sec. of exposure time you can´t distinguish any single wave. This looks quiet.
The following images present more examples how to play with exposure times and their impact on the result. Just try it for yourself. It´s fun.