Wave Painting Photography Tips

Photography Tips

One of the various things that you can do with long exposure is wave painting. When you photograph a wave at a slow shutter speed, you capture the movement of the water creating a blurry, silky, and dreamy pattern. By having the right composition, and shooting in the right conditions, you can take some breathtaking images of ocean waves using this photography technique. In this video, photographer Serge Ramelli shares some of his tips to help you take surreal wave photographs using long exposure:

Ramelli shares some excellent tips on how you can best compose your image for the purpose of wave painting. As he shares, look for a powerful foreground element and compose your image around it. The waves interacting with the foreground is what will make the image stand out.

“Wave painting is all about the foreground.”

Besides composition, he also shares some handy techniques on getting the best exposure. And don’t worry if you don’t have an ND filter to block light. As Ramelli demonstrates in the video, you can shoot close to sunset. This will allow you to shoot long exposures of about 1-3 secs. As a bonus, you can also get some fantastic lighting on the sky.

Towards the end of the video, you also get to see how you can process your wave painting photos to take them to the next level.