Let’s face it: ND filters is usually a ache. They’re pricey, simple to omit, and when you’ve ever spent part a shoot fumbling for a step-up ring, you recognize they don’t at all times justify the effort.

Within the fresh video beneath, panorama professional and educator Mark Denney breaks down why you’ll ditch the impartial density clear out altogether however nonetheless create silky-smooth, motion-blurred photographs of shifting water with not anything however your digital camera and a few good ways.

Denney doesn’t hate filters—actually, he swears by way of a polarizer for chopping glare on rainy rocks and water surfaces (one thing you can’t repair in submit). However ND filters? He’s discovered some way round them, and it’s absolute best for photographers who commute gentle or in finding themselves on location filter-less, like Denney did all over a up to date workshop in Patagonia.

The trick, as he explains within the video on the backside of this submit, isn’t magic, it’s all about working out how your digital camera works and the use of herbal gentle in your merit. Right here’s the five-step system he swears by way of:

1. Shoot in Handbook Mode – You wish to have complete keep an eye on over aperture, ISO, and shutter pace. No auto-anything. In case your digital camera is looking the photographs, this method gained’t paintings.
2. Use a Shutter Lengthen – A 2-second lengthen minimizes shake brought about by way of urgent the shutter button. That’s an important for sharpness all over longer exposures.
3. Drop Your ISO – Set it as little as your digital camera lets in (ISO 100, 64, even 32 if to be had). This reduces gentle sensitivity and allows you to stretch your shutter time.
4. Slim That Aperture – Get started at f/16 or smaller. A tighter aperture reduces the sunshine hitting your sensor, extending publicity time naturally. Sure, diffraction would possibly melt the picture fairly at f/22+, however for many audience (learn: no longer pixel-peeping photographers), the consequences nonetheless glance nice.
5. Shoot in Low Mild – Early morning, twilight, overcast skies—those are your allies. In brilliant noon solar, this method is more difficult, however nonetheless possible with f/22 and base ISO.

In brief, omit the tools panic. You can shoot pro-quality lengthy exposures with out ND filters—simply deliver your digital camera technology, somewhat of persistence, and perhaps a polarizer (when you commit it to memory).