Photography Minded

Photographing waterfalls is much like photographing long exposures, however there are some various technique changes that need to be mentioned. Below you will ifnd all sorts of tips and tricks to maximize your waterfall photography.

Use a remote shutter release. They are usually not to expensive, I would recommend the wired one especially for low light situations. The reason for this is twofold, one is that you don’t screw up your perfectly framed shot by moving the tripod, and the second is to keep the camera from shaking. If you are in low lighting, the vibrations from your finger hitting the shutter can cause blur in your photographs.

Frozen Falls, originally uploaded by Daniel Hellerman.

 

Use A tripod, you can not hand-hold long exposure photographs, it simply will not work. Do not substitute a tripod for a monopod either, that is a terrible alternative for waterfall photography! Just make sure you can find a stable ground for all 3 legs. In the shot above I orinigally thought the snow would be difficult to deal with, however, It acted as a kind of cement and I did not have any problems at all!

Use a mid range f/Stop something around f/11. This will allow you to get good, smooth light without overexposure.If you want a “Velvet Effect” work down from there, hitting as low as f/36.

Velvet, originally uploaded by Daniel Hellerman.

 

Shoot at ISO 100. This will make the rest of your image crisp and clear except for the running water.

Try a high f/stop as well. Experimentation is key, when shooting a picture where I want to capture light trails, I will often go up to an f/stop as high as 32 to allow for very little light to be captured but a lot of detail in the motion of the image.

Experiment. I cannot stress this enough, experiment, experiment, experiment. Keep trying different combinations, there is no “sunny 16″ rule for long exposures, just keep trying. You may like the results even if they are not what you expect!

Mini Falls, originally uploaded by Daniel Hellerman.