Hey Ya'll! Hope you've had a great week! Me? Pretty good. Fall is here and what better time to talk about photographing waterfalls! One of my most favorite things to shoot when I go somewhere. First of all there are lots of ways to shoot a waterfall I'm going to go over the basics on how I shoot them and what you'll need to do this. You can shoot a waterfall many different ways. If it's a big powerful waterfall maybe you want to stop the motion of the water to show the roughness of the waterfall and the sheer power. If it's a gentle waterfall maybe you want to drag the shutter(long exposure) and smooth out the water to make it flow. Either way they always seem to look great and I just love shooting waterfalls. So what tools will you need?

If your shooting smooth silky waterfalls the first thing you'll need is a Tripod. You need one that is sturdy enough to keep your camera still during those longer exposures. One you don't mind getting a little wet on the bottom but one you trust will keep your camera still and safe.  When shooting water that you don't want to move and stop the motion you might not need the tripod. A Polarizing filter of some sort . A circular or a linear one .  Water can be very shiny and you can really get hot spots in the water the polarizer cuts the glare just like a good pair of polarizing sunglasses do.  I just love the shots looking through the water at some round stones at the foot of a waterfall. If your shooting a longer shutter depending on the time of day you will also need a Neutral Density filter to slow down the shutter if its too bright outside. Usually a 3 stop in conjunction with a Polarizer does the trick but may need more depending on the brightness of the scene. A remote release of some kind can come in handy. This will eliminate the camera shake of a hand pressing the shutter button causing not as sharp photo's. It can be wired or not wired doesn't matter. Or you can do like I've been doing the last couple of years and shooting with a two or five second delay which gives your camera time enough to quit shaking before you press the shutter. And of course a camera that you can shoot in Manual. The lenses that you use will be determined by the size and the closeness as which you are to your subject. The further away the longer the lens.  Usually I'm at a wide or midrange zoom seems to work for me but I have used a telephoto on further away waterfalls and for detail shots of the waterfall. Now for the how too.

The composition of the waterfall is like composing anything else. You want a foreground , middle and background. Leading lines like a log in water comes in handy also.  Make sure you shoot Horizontal and Vertical shots . Some waterfalls seem better vertical and some better in Landscape mode. When shooting in the fall (my favorite time to shoot) I like to have some colorful leaves at the foreground if I can and trees surrounding the waterfall if you're lucky enough to have some good color. If your shooting flowing silky shot the first thing you have to do is look at your scene and with your minds eye (photographers eye) see the shot you want. Set up your tripod and attach your camera securely. Remember your around water be careful. Frame your shot, Put on a polarizer and adjust so you don't have the glare on the water. ISO at the lowest you can, put your f-stop between f/8-f/16 . I try for the sharpest and what will cut out the most light so I'm usually between 8-11. Now slow your shutter down. Look at your meter! I find that usually 1.5 to 2 stops under exposed works well. But it all depends on the flow of the water.  The slower the water the slower the shutter will have to be. Take a shot. Remember to expose for the brightest spot in the frame you can always bring back the shadows in post. If you need a ND filter install it on top of the Polarizer and try again. This is where the fun kicks in. Make sure you don't slow the water too much or it will just disappear but too fast it just looks blurry. Adjust it so it shows motion. To me these are some of the most satisfying shots I take all year . 

In Post production edit like you always do. For me I usually change the profile to Adobe Landscape that puts some saturation and punch into the colors and at the end put a little vignette to draw the eye to the center of the photo but just a hint on one not too strong.

Well that's all my secrets to shooting waterfalls. I truly love chasing waterfalls. I advise to get there early and shoot before all the people get there and it's usually darker so you might not even need that ND filter. You can also get lots of different angles without getting in someone's .way or they be in your way.  These last two shots were taken just this week in West Virginia on our fall workshop. Having a blast shooting waterfalls this week. So until next week enjoy fall and get out and shoot!