Thread: How do you photograph waterfalls?

Basically, you need a slow shutter speed. Generally I would use a manual exposure using the camera's metre to calculate the correct aperture opening for the shutter speed.

Use a tripod and experiment with holding the shutter open for increasing amounts of time until you get the effect you desire. This is generally used to accentuate the motion of the water. Quite a nice effect if pulled off correctly.

So should I be able to set the aperture to suit any shutter speed or do I need compromise?

For example, I have a plug in switch which allows me to open the shutter for as long as I like, but if I can't set the aperture to suit my photo will be incorrectly exposed.

Cheers, Jack

Originally Posted by ciscokid

Use a tripod and experiment with holding the shutter open for increasing amounts of time until you get the effect you desire. This is generally used to accentuate the motion of the water. Quite a nice effect if pulled off correctly.

That is exactly what I was doing.
With a slow shutter speed I was getting incorrect exposure, the only way I could get a correct exposure was to have the shutter speed too fast to get the nice effect.

Cheers, Jack

You live in an area that's got a bit of stray light!

At low shutter speeds you may simply be running out of aperture adjustment.

Make sure the ASA is set at the lowest you can (100 I think on your camera), if you have a filter use it. A polarizing filter would be really good.

You may even need one of those filters that does nothing more than block light!

Start off at 1/60 on tV and see if the lens is stopped right down. Work your way down the shutter speeds until you have it nutted out. The beauty of digital is that you can just keep trying till it works.

If it's as bright as I think it is, you may be in trouble!

I'm guessing you aren't taking this one on TI eh?

Cheers,

P

Midge,

Not many waterfalls on TI
I was trying to take some nice waterfall shots on the drive through Cape York. I gave up on the dSLR and used the little Casio Exilim instead.

It is fairly bright up here and I have a 18-200 Tamron lens fitted, not sure of its aperture range.

What is ASA and how do I set it?

Cheers, Jack

Peter,

When you said ASA did you mean ISO.
I checked the ISO and it was on 1600 which is the highest for my camera.
That may have been the problem .

Also, in one of the reviews in a link you provided, there was reference made to photoshop CS2. Do you know i this is available for "free" or does one need to purchase it. If so, roughly how much.

Cheers, Jack

BTW, my lathe is locked away in a container for the next 18 months.
I guess that makes me young again

Don't know about digital cameras for this kind of shot but with a SLR 35mm I would set the camera at f32 and bracket the shot by opening the shutter for 10 seconds and move up from there in increments of 5 seconds for daylight and night time would try bracketing from about 1 minute and adjusting the exposure time accordingly.

My lens only goes to F22, but I understand your point

Thanks, Jack

Originally Posted by Jack E

When you said ASA did you mean ISO.
I checked the ISO and it was on 1600 which is the highest for my camera.
That may have been the problem .

Yep ISO.
That'll do it every time! You'll find you'll get a much cleaner shot with the lower ISO, Less "noise".

Also, in one of the reviews in a link you provided, there was reference made to photoshop CS2. Do you know i this is available for "free" or does one need to purchase it. If so, roughly how much.

Not for free. Photoshop is the full Pro Job. I use photoshop elements which is around $150.00.

I'm sure there'd be a freebie out there, but don't know too much about that windoze software stuff!

BTW, my lathe is locked away in a container for the next 18 months.
I guess that makes me young again

Only if me not using mine makes me young too!

Cheers,

P

Can you do the corrections you linked to on photoshop elments?

Cheers, Jack

Try this free photo editor. Paint.Net

It's quite good, actually very good for a freebe.

Waterfall shots aren't really hard. All you need is the willingness to spend a bit of time getting a good angle, then adjusting exposures so you capture a range of effects. You do have to watch out for blown highlights, so avoid taking shots in bright sunlight. As with most photography, the best time is early morning and the golden hour in late afternoon.

Here is one I did in march:



It was taken at ISO 100, F8, for 6 seconds

And this one:



Same scene and light, but I backed the ISO off to 50 and managed 15 seconds at F11

Usually, for this sort of shot, I set the camera to Av and adjust the the Aperture (no less than 5.6, no more than F16), then tinker with the ISO if I'm having problems getting a slow enough shutter speed. Given the time taken to setup, I usually take a few shots at different exposures, they all come out differrent because of the moving water and bubbles.

And yes, Tripod is absolutely required for repeatable shots like these. It's too hard getting to wonderful locations like this to come back without good photos...

woodbe.

Originally Posted by Jack E

My lens only goes to F22, but I understand your point

Thanks, Jack

Jack
as others have said you need a tripod and a shutter speed slower than ½ seconds – which means the lens needs to be stopped right down.
Regardless of how low your lens goes, if you're serious about bluring the water get yourself a one or more Neutral Density (ND) filters
an ND2 will double the shutter speed for the same aperture setting (depth of field) i.e. a ½ second will increase to 1 second for the same exposure
an ND4 will multiple by 4, i.e. a ½ second will increase to 2 seconds for the same exposure

the filters can be stacked


ian