How the hell do you shoot waterfalls ??

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Ive seen some fab waterfall shots on here and yesterday i thought i'd give it a try - well this was my attempt ......

(1)
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(2)
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Quite magical looking but not quite what i was hoping for as i wanted the steamy effect ! How the hell do you manage to get good flowing water photos ??

Camera settings were as follows:
Exposure: 0.077 sec (1/13)
Aperture: f/8.0
Focal Length: 34 mm
ISO Speed: 100


Please share your secrets :bonk::shrug:
 
Much slower shutter speed needed to get the creamy / misty effect.
 
Really depends on the day - I assume your camera has an exposure meter of some sort, even if it's just flashing the display if it's out of range. Alternatively, set it to Tv or shutter priority and dial in a couple of seconds and it will deal with the aperture for you.

Just experiment and check the histograms after each shot.
 
Hi Natalie :wave:

In order to get the milky water effect you need to slow your shutter down, somewhere between 1/10 and 2 seconds will look great.

Its impossible to tell you what f-stop to use because that will depend on the ambient light but the chances are to get your shutter that low at a standard exposure your going to be at the f/22 end anyway and even then your unlikely to get the shutter you want with most waterfalls because white water reflects all the available light and is therefore very bright!

The way photographers get around this is to use a filter - which blocks out light, specifically you'd be looking at a Natural Density filter - these make the image darker to a certain extent but they keep the colours neutral; an ND6 filter would cut out 6 stops of light etc.

You can buy screw on filters which just go on the end of your lens and they are a great place to start. If you get into your filter stuff then you may find something like the Cokin P series useful - this is a combination of filters, holders and adapter rings which allow you to do a lot creatively.

I hope this helps, on one small note that waterfall looks quite shaded so the following recipe should work which may help if the waterfall is near you and you wanted to shoot it again:

Set your camera to shutter priority, set the ISO as low as it will go, use evaluative or matrix metering (don't know what its called on the D60) so that the exposure is balanced between the water and the background. Start with a shutter speed of around 1/25 and work down the range getting slower until your limited by the aperture getting to its minimum size. This should get you the shot you've been looking for whilst building up your technique too - cool eh? Remember that at these slow speeds your going to need a tripod and a remote release might be useful (y)

*Note: F/22 is quite a bad thing - diffraction happens around F/8 - F/9 on a crop body which can lead to you loosing detail in the static elements of the composition - this is why we tend to prefer filters*
 
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Your composition is good, to get your silky water effect, as mentioned, you need to slow your shutter speed down.

I'd suggest shooting in low light, set your aperture to f22, consequently your shutter speed should be slow enough.

In your shot above, if you had shot at f22 instead of f8 then your shutter speed would have been around 1/3 of a second, which could have been enough to give a silky effect?
 
WOW, some fab replies her and lots for me to think about / play around with - thank you so much.

hyakuhei - I have a Cokin holder and a number of the filter but not an ND one :bonk: I do also have a screw in circular polarizer, would this be of any use to start off with as i know it should reduce it by a stop of so ?

I also do have a tripod but have never used it (sorry, that is a cardinal sin i know) so will dig that out aswell
 
While a tripod is essential for this type of shot it doesn't mean you should be using it all the time!:LOL:

Far too restricting!

Good luck with the shots.
 
Hi Natalie,

The polarizer would certainly help in terms of stopping some light - I'm not sure what it will do to the look of the waterfall - it might look great - why not take it along and give it a try (y)
 
Personally i would say.
1. Use a tripod and self timer/cable release.
2. ISO 100
3. Aperture mode adjust nearer to f16 to f22 area if its bright area.
4. If that doesn`t slow shutter down to give desired effect then a nd filter is needed.

This pics were taken with a Nikon D40x and kit lens.

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