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Home » Photography Techniques

Waterfall Photography Tips

By Alex Mody 25 Comments

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Most landscape photographers, myself included, love to photograph gigantic, thunderous, raging waterfalls, quiet little babbling brooks, and just about everything in between. Successfully photographing them is not always easy, though. Here are some tips that I am constantly reminding both myself and tour participants alike while in the field:

20130523-0169-308-Edit
NIKON D800 + 16-35mm f/4 @ 16mm, ISO 100, 16/10, f/13.0

Table of Contents

  • Use a Polarizer
  • Experiment with Shutter Speed
  • Get Wet
  • Take Your Time and Pay Attention to Your Surroundings
  • Go Back, Often

Use a Polarizer

A circular polarizing filter can help improve just about any stream or waterfall scene. It helps to cut glare and increase saturation when dealing with wet foliage, cuts glare on wet rocks, and can tone down the unwanted reflections in water from bright patches of sky overhead. A circular polarizing filter also prevents two stops of light from getting to your sensor, which can be extremely useful if you are looking to slow down your shutter speed, but can be equally as horrible if you are looking for the opposite, due to foliage blowing around in the wind.

20130528-0172-116-Edit
NIKON D800 + 14-24mm f/2.8 @ 14mm, ISO 200, 1/1, f/13.0

Experiment with Shutter Speed

When the topic of stream and waterfall photography is brought up, many people may suggest doing whatever is possible to get a very slow shutter speed. While this soft, milky effect is often quite nice, I find that viewers, especially non-photographers, may relate to an image better if some detail appears in the water. I find the sweet spot to be between 1 second and 1/8 second, depending on the specific situation. When photographing a scene with very fast-moving water, I find myself on the shorter end of that spectrum, and when photographing a scene with very slow-moving water, I find myself on the longer end – sometimes even going as long as 2-4 seconds while still maintaining detail in blurred water.

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NIKON D300 + 12-24mm f/4 @ 16mm, ISO 100, 1/4, f/16.0

Of course, none of this is black-and-white. There are plenty of exceptions. For example, when photographing a swirling eddy in a stream, sometimes 30 seconds may not even be long enough. Or, when photographing extremely violent whitewater, one may find that they prefer freezing the action with a short shutter speed. Tiny adjustments can make or break any photo, and it is important to experiment as you get a feel for how to choose optimal shutter speed.

20081016_0052-Edit
NIKON D300 + 12-24mm f/4 @ 12mm, ISO 100, 20/1, f/16.0

Get Wet

If you’re looking for a dramatic, in-your-face perspective, throw on your ultra wide-angle lens, and get right in the water. There can be quite a difference between standing in any given scene you are photographing, versus standing next to it, on the outside, looking in. Getting in to a scene puts your viewer right there with you. This is, more often than not, a good thing!

20130114-0142-142-Edit-Edit
NIKON D800 + 14-24mm f/2.8 @ 18mm, ISO 200, 1/2, f/16.0

There are several safety considerations when getting in the water. Be wary of slippery rocks and fast currents that may sweep you off your feet. If you have any doubt at all about your ability to stand in rushing water, it’s simple: don’t take the risk.

You should also take care to keep your polarizer or front element dry. I like to use a Rocket Blower to blast water droplets off my lens. If that fails, careful wiping with a microfiber lens cloth will suffice.

20130525-0170-307-Edit
NIKON D800 + 14-24mm f/2.8 @ 15mm, ISO 400, 8/10, f/11.0

Take Your Time and Pay Attention to Your Surroundings

When photographing a beautiful stream or waterfall, it comes all too naturally to hone in on what one perceives to be the most interesting or important feature in any given scene. While this most certainly works at times, this approach often leads to simple, straightforward, and obvious compositions, which can be nice, but may also get boring after a while.

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NIKON D800 + 14-24mm f/2.8 @ 18mm, ISO 100, 4/10, f/13.0

Take the image below, for example. On this particular day, I spent two hours photographing along and in this stream, and then one hour photographing a beautiful waterfall a few hundred yards upstream. Only after spending several hours photographing the most obvious scenes, and beginning my hike back to the trailhead, did it occur to me how beautiful that neon green forest was when looking downstream – and that I ought to find some way to include it in my photo.

20110526-0040-118-Edit-2
NIKON D3S + 16-35mm f/4 @ 16mm, ISO 200, 3/1, f/16.0

Go Back, Often

I find that most of my favorite waterfall and stream images have come from return visits to familiar locations. There is a lot to be said for being familiar with any particular stream or waterfall when trying to create compelling imagery. If you know every bend of a stream like the back of your hand, you will undoubtedly be able to move more quickly in rapidly changing conditions. It is also helpful to return to the same scenes during different seasons, or during different water flow, because these ephemeral changes may afford new photographic opportunities that weren’t there before. It is safe to say that this principle holds true in most landscape photography, but it is very relevant when working with water features of any kind.

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NIKON D3S + 16-35mm f/4 @ 20mm, ISO 200, 1/5, f/11.0
20131024-0189-318-Edit
NIKON D800 + 24-70mm f/2.8 @ 32mm, ISO 100, 16/10, f/11.0

With streams flowing high, and neon spring greens around the corner, it is about to be prime time for stream and waterfall shooting – good luck out there!

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Filed Under: Photography Techniques Tagged With: Tips for Beginners, Photography Tips, Waterfall Photography

About Alex Mody

An emerging talent in nature photography, Alex Mody - winner of the Nature’s Best Windland Smith Rice International 2009 Youth Photographer of the Year Award - specializes in landscape photography. Alex, based in Olympia, Washington, is a professional photographer, and part-time college student. His nature images have been featured in the Smithsonian Museum of Natural History, Nature's Best Photography Magazine, N-Photo Magazine and more. Additionally, Alex offers photography workshops and tours in near his home in the beautiful Pacific Northwest. View his work here.

Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. Dave
    March 30, 2015 at 5:53 am

    Great tips and wonderful photos to match. You’re obviously very talented. The circulating leaves in the water is an especially nice idea.

    Reply
  2. Patrick O'Connor
    March 30, 2015 at 7:50 am

    I’ve read a lot of articles and watched more than a few video tutorials on photographing streams and waterfalls but you’ve added tips and considerations that I haven’t encountered before.
    Thanks for sharing!

    Reply
  3. Larry Brooke
    March 30, 2015 at 8:10 am

    Great tips and photos – I have still confused by some of your shutter speeds – 16/10, 8/10, etc. Thanks

    Reply
    • Monte Comeau
      March 30, 2015 at 9:36 am

      I never have understood how the shutter speeds are described here. I am not sure why they are not just posted as the regular numbers we are all used to. I am sure this might be the actual mathematical numbers and be totally correct but not very useful to photographers and I am pretty that is who the audience is here.

      Reply
      • GaelC
        March 30, 2015 at 10:08 am

        It is merely a written retranscription of spoken language : 16 tenth, 8 tenth..

        Reply
        • Pierre
          March 30, 2015 at 11:50 am

          And it’s also a totally correct notation, I’m not sure what exactly troubles some people, it’s just a fraction.

          Reply
        • larryb10
          March 30, 2015 at 1:44 pm

          I don’t recall ever saying that I am shooting at a shutter speed of 16 tenths of a second nor have I ever said I am shooting @ 1 and 6 tenths of a second! What is wrong with normal decimals!?

          Reply
  4. Monte Comeau
    March 30, 2015 at 9:37 am

    Very nice photos and good tips.

    Reply
  5. Rod Machin
    March 30, 2015 at 9:38 am

    I’m obviously out on a limb here, as I prefer fast shutter speeds showing the water droplets frozen in motion as per Nazim’s second shot in his how to photograph waterfalls tutorial – each to his own !!!

    Reply
    • winc06
      March 30, 2015 at 11:00 am

      I could not agree more. Waterfall images look this way because of large format film cameras years ago. Their lenses and film were so slow they could not take a picture of water that looked any other way. Now people go through all sorts of contortions to ape that “look” which is nothing like how water looks. Images of water looking like flowing snow on another planet are so “yesterday”.

      Reply
      • Patrick O'Connor
        March 30, 2015 at 12:30 pm

        I appreciate your analyzing why I, and others, do what I do. And all this time I thought I just liked it! ;-)

        Reply
    • Mike Banks
      March 30, 2015 at 1:46 pm

      Rod, that’s the point. Each to his own. When making photographs of this type I often shoot the same scene different ways Some folks like that smooth creamy, dreamy water look, others like the droplets frozen in time and some like something in between. As long as you are going to set up to shoot the scene you might as well take the time to utilize the environment to your best advantage. Don’t you think?

      Reply
    • c-bob
      June 27, 2015 at 7:29 pm

      Rod, I am not a beginner. I won my 1st, grand prize in a photo contest in either 1958 or 59. I too, once went through the contortions to try and get blurry water. But, I must admit that I have grown weary at seeing such shots, which are nothing like I see with the naked eye. It is probably just my opinion, but the dreamy water seems to take away from the natural environment in which it is located. Just my 2¢.

      Reply
  6. Zen
    March 30, 2015 at 11:53 am

    I have a 9 stop ND filter and a circular polariser. Which should I use ? Most waterfall tutorials suggest the ND filter.

    Reply
    • Trey Spooner
      March 30, 2015 at 9:02 pm

      Both.

      Reply
  7. Mike Banks
    March 30, 2015 at 1:46 pm

    Beautiful images and good tutorial. Zen, try them both to see what you get with each the ND filter and the polarizer. The difference in stop reduction will produce different effects. Experiment with both.

    Reply
  8. Ray
    March 31, 2015 at 1:28 am

    How are you able to have such long shutter speeds without blurring the shot? Do you use a tripod? Or is there some other novel way of stabilizing the camera?

    Reply
    • Simon
      March 31, 2015 at 5:44 am

      Tripod is a must for this type of photography.

      Reply
      • tm1126
        April 9, 2015 at 11:46 am

        No tripod and no ND filter: 500px.com/photo…er_library

        Sometimes you can put your camera over a rock. But yes: ND filter and tripod is highly recommended,

        Reply
    • Alpha Whiskey
      April 2, 2015 at 10:10 am

      When I photographed Waterfall Country in Wales, I brought a tripod with me but I found that the image stabiliser on the Olympus EM-5 (and undoubtedly newer bodies) was so good I could take crisp 1 second exposures hand-held. Saved me a lot of time and gave me same the silky water effect. If I had taken my DSLR I would have needed the tripod every time. Examples at the link:

      alphawhiskey.slickpic.com/photo…Waterfalls

      Reply
  9. Spencer Cox
    March 31, 2015 at 3:26 pm

    Very well-made photos, Alex! The last one is my favorite (for its subtlety), although the rest are of course wonderful as well.

    I love the “Go back, often” advice. I take almost all of my macro photos within a fifty-foot radius of each other.

    ~Spencer

    Reply
  10. Michael
    April 1, 2015 at 8:59 am

    Photos got better and better as the article progressed. Beautiful.

    Reply
  11. Alpha Whiskey
    April 2, 2015 at 10:07 am

    Recently returned from photographing Iguassu Falls in South America. Fortunately I had put most of these tips to use. :) Good article.

    alphawhiskey.slickpic.com/photoblog/

    Reply
    • tm1126
      April 9, 2015 at 11:45 am

      Hey!

      Great pictures from my country :) I loved your buenos aires at night pics :D Here at mines:
      500px.com/login…enos-aires

      I moved from buenos aires to the patagonia last year, you should come to Bariloche! you’ll love it :D

      Take a look at this waterfall near Bariloche:
      500px.com/photo…er_library

      Cheers
      Tomas

      Reply
  12. pwdoc
    September 19, 2018 at 11:48 am

    Really nice tips !! I follow all these tips and really end up with something amazing !!!! I like all these tips and as you know only photographers can understand the situation of other photographer so I wrote another quick article on some another awesome waterfall photography tips and tricks, please check my article here -> photographywith.com/captu…otographs/ , hope you like it, thank you.

    Reply

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