How do I photograph water without catching glare from sun?

Question

For fun, I have been trying to photograph a small, fast-moving creek near my house, and I cannot figure out how to take a picture of the creek in good lighting without it reflecting the sun and causing glare. All of the water droplets are flying around and causing a ton of problems like chromatic aberration and reflections. How do I eliminate this stuff?

Answer 1

"Good lighting" for outside pictures is pretty much dusk or dawn. If you're getting a harsh reflection of the sun at this point, you should be able to easily rotate a bit and get the sun out of your frame. In fact, some of the best light is just before the sun rises and just after it sets. There's still plenty of light to shoot with - especially for landscapes - and you'll not have to worry about these reflections and glare.

Overall, I suspect you're just shooting too much in the middle of the day.

For any lighting questions, especially those revolving around the angles and glare and such - Light: Science and Magic is a great, great resource.

Answer 2

A circular polarizing filter will go a long way to eliminate the reflected light from the water.

But you might also want to go in the opposite direction, and try to work out a composition that embraces the reflection, rather than eliminate it. For example, longer exposures that turn the glints into something more silky might get you something nice.