illininitt

I have always wanted to take great water/waterfall pictures be never wanted to "set" the camera or use a tripod for the shot. Can these filter help me do that on a simple Canon T3I camera without any special "settings"/tripod? Looked on Ebay and prices range from $12 to over $100. Help with brand/name/place to buy and cost?

Mac Loc: Pittsburgh, Philadelphia now Hernando Co. Fl.

For soft waterfall pictures you need a long shutter speed. A ND filter will allow you to shoot with a long shutter speed, but a long shutter speed will require a tripod.

rmalarz Loc: Tempe, Arizona

Absolutely not. The ND filters require longer exposures. That is what makes the moving water appear silky. Without a tripod to make those long exposures, everything in the photograph would be silky smooth.
--Bob

photoman022 Loc: Manchester CT USA

The reason you'll need a longer shutter speed (and a tripod--even though you don't want to use one) is that an ND filter is dark; it holds back light; you'll need to compensate that loss of light by either increasing your ISO, f/stop, or shutter speed. To get the silky effect of water you need to increase the shutter speed, which will make any camera shake very apparent if you hand hold the camera.

Mac Loc: Pittsburgh, Philadelphia now Hernando Co. Fl.

I think you mean decrease the shutter speed.

BullMoose Loc: Southwest Michigan

Sorry, but this comment is very misleading to the typical beginning photographer, which the OP appears to be. The main purpose of the ND filter (for the condition the OP asked) is to slow down the shutter speed. Using the f stop or ISO to compensate for the loss of available light would just defeat the purpose of using it.

aflundi Loc: Albuquerque, NM

Don't listen to the nay-sayers. With an ND filter used without a tripod, not only will the water be silky, so will the rocks, trees, mountains, birds, and clouds. You'll have the ultimate silky machine. The $12 ones are made especially for use without a tripod. The expensive ones are for tripod use only.

pahtspix

Sorry, BUT..You are definitely going to need a tripod for the long exposures that will be necessary for what you are trying to do

mrtobin Loc: North East Ohio

To the op. You need a tripod MORE than you need a nd filter. Often times when in a deep and shady woods, where water falls often live, an iso of 100 and a f stop of maybe 11 will give you a fairly long "shutter speed", "time value". No need for a nd filter.

amfoto1 Loc: San Jose, Calif. USA

I'm not sure what "malarz" is responding to with "absolutely not"....

In fact, the answer is "yes", your camera is perfectly capable and the ND filters are what you need.... But "no", it's not something you're likely to be able to do without a tripod or some other means of keeping your camera rock steady and perfectly still for some seconds. If you want the image to be sharp, aside from the moving water, you simply will not be able to handhold these long exposures.

Your T3i's lowest sensitivity setting is ISO 100. That's often not low enough to allow for a longer exposure, such as is needed for those "moving water" shots. I'd suggest you experiment with shutter speeds in the range of 1/15 to several seconds, to see for yourself the variations in the effect that are possible.

The problem is, with ISO 100 the lowest you can set... and f8 or perhaps f11 the smallest lens aperture you want to use... the lighting conditions may be too bright to allow you to use as slow a shutter speed as you want, to make the "motion blur" effect with the water. This is where Neutral Density filters are needed.

The settings really aren't all that special. Just set the ISO to 100, select a middle aperture such as f8 (depends upon the lens, but most are sharpest in the middle like that), then choose an appropriate shutter speed. Say that lighting is such that without any filter you'd need to shoot at 1/60....Then with a 6-stop ND added you would be able to slow the shutter to 1 second... a 9-stop filter would allow a 4 second exposure... while a less dense 3-stop filter would only make 1/8 second possible. If you get good quality filters, you can stack two of them on a lens if you need even stronger. You also can combine a ND filter with a Circular Polarizer which itself reduces light passing through by one to two stops, depending upon the C-Pol's setting (plus a C-Pol is often useful reducing reflections around water).

You'll have to figure out what's correct exposure for the existing lighting conditions, then choose the filter to use accordingly. I'd recommend you get at least two different strength filters.... such as 6-stop and 9-stop, or 4-stop and 8-stop... etc.

Essentially, for still photography a ND filter serves to "shift" your usable exposure range... making slower shutter speeds possible. They also can allow a larger aperture to be used in brighter light conditions, for shallow depth of field effects than wouldn't be possible without the filter.

And, yes, you'll need a good, steady tripod to make those longer exposures. You also might want a remote release, so you don't have to touch the camera and possibly cause vibrations during the longer exposure. An alternative is to use the camera's self-timer, to delay the actual shutter release until 2 or 3 seconds after you press the shutter button.

Another helpful "trick" during longer exposures is to use Mirror Lockup to further reduce chance that in-camera vibrations from the mirror movement will blur images. I don't know if your T3i has MLU (check your manual). If it doesn't, using Live View can accomplish much the same thing. (In fact, using Exposure Simulation in Live View also can be helpful determining exposure settings, as well as focusing and composing through the dark filter.)

With the darker filters on your lens, your camera may not be able to autofocus. You may need to pre-focus without the filter, then turn off AF to "lock" focus, then install the filter.

Don't get too cheap ND filters. They are more likely to mess up your images. Get good quality, multi-coated for best results. I use and recommend B+W F Pro "MRC" (or XS Pro if lens is an ultrawide that requires a thin filter) or Hoya HD2 and HD3 "HMC" and "SHMC". There are other good brands such as Marumi, Heliopan, etc.

Unless you're already set up to use the rectangular type of filter, I recommend using round screw-in type. If you have more than one lens that use different filter sizes, you would probably only need ND filters in the size to fit the lens you use for landscapes.

Unless you also want one for video, don't buy the more expensive "Variable ND"... the more affordable of those still aren't cheap, but can really mess up images. The good Variable ND that work better are extremely expensive. But you really don't need them for still photography. Two or three fixed strength ND are all that's needed to handle any situations you'll encounter shooting stills. With a fixed strength filter, once you set the shutter speed you want, to achieve the amount of motion blur you want to see in the image, if needed you can vary the aperture and ISO to fine-tune your exposure. (Video doesn't have as much flexibility with some of the exposure factors.... so a Variable ND might be needed.)

A separate, handheld incident light meter can be handy, but with care it's possible to use the meter built-into your camera to determine exposures. In addition, you might want to prepare a chart of exposure settings or get an exposure calculator to help you work with the filters. There are "old school" calculators like this: https://www.flickr.com/photos/sakariasingolfsson/3613666382. Or, today there are exposure apps available for use on various smart phones.

Get out and do a series of test shots at different shutter speeds, to learn how the effect can be varied. It also will make a difference how fast the water is moving, of course. A waterfall or steep mountain stream will be fast-moving, while movement of a "lazy" river or waves in the ocean or a lake might be slow and need a longer exposure.

Finally, depending upon your level of experience, if you haven't already done so you might want to get a copy of Bryan Peterson's "Understanding Exposure" and read it thoroughly.

Crichmond Loc: Loveland, CO

Waterfalls are wonderful subjects to shoot, and to get the silky watery effect you will need to use a ND Filter, tripod, and cable release. And yes you will have to adjust your camera settings to effectively use the ND Filters.

There are multiple choices of ND Filters. Some are a fixed value and some are variable. Choice of filters will depend upon budget and of course filter size. The filter size must match the lens of choice.

Here is a short and limited list of options to choose from:

One of the cheaper options is the Neewer (or something similar) brand. I think it sells for around $10. It’s not the best quality and your image quality will probably reflect that.

http://www.amazon.com/NEEWER-Neutral-Density-Adjustable-Variable/dp/B0059BH85K/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1488560269&sr=8-2&keywords=variable+nd+filter

B&H sells the Brower Brand. I’ve recently purchase this filter, but have not had the opportunity to try them out, but the reviews seem favorable.

http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/1014980-REG/bower_fn52_52mm_variable_neutral_density.html

B&H also sells Tiffen, Hoya, B+W, Syrp, Heliopan, and others. Again it all depends on what the budget allows.

http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/813278-REG/Tiffen_77VND_77mm_Variable_Neutral_Density.html

B&H also sells the ND Filter kit as well.

http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/674665-REG/Tiffen_77NDK3_77mm_Digital_Neutral_Density.html

Good luck! And happy shooting!

Spider223

Along with the ND filter and tripod combination, try a few shots also using the HDR setting in your camera. I really like the combined effect that gives on slower moving water.

I just bought a Hoya - HMC ND8 52mm Neutral-Density Lens Filter ($21.00) from Best Buy, and it seems to work good, though I think I would actually like to try something a little darker myself just to be able to get more use out of it in brighter light situations. The more expensive ones you are looking at are generally a variable design, which may be better for dialing in exactly what you want to accomplish (Not sure as I only have limited experience with the ND8).

repleo Loc: Boston

If you have Photoshop or similar software you can get the same effect by 'stacking'. You wouldn't need the ND filter but you would still need a tripod. Stacking involves taking mutiple shots (maybe a couple of dozen) without moving the camera and then using the software to stack them on top of each other. I have an App on my Sony A6000 that will do it in-camera without PS.

illininitt

Thanks for all the posts. The "soft water" for me is now so far on the back burner it fell on the floor. If a tripod/camera setting is needed....a "soft water" pick is not needed. I never worked on a car....either it starts or not/....never drove a manual trans...either it has auto or I walk/lived at my place for 7 years...never used the stove oven....either the food works in the microwave or I don't eat. In other words....life is too short to go through the hassel of setting up a tripod/setting a camera hoping I can MAYBE set it back to where it was...and not getting the desired pics on my RMNP trip. At 68...the car/camera/microwave/pc/tv/trac phone stays on auto. Besides....God made auto for a reason....

WessoJPEG Loc: Cincinnati, Ohio

Never flew an airplane either.