Ron Bigelow Photography Articles
How to Creat Dynamic Waterfall Photographs
by Ron Bigelow
Waterfalls certainly attract people. Any area that has a major waterfall is bound to have visitors. Many of those visitors will, likely, be photographers intent on capturing great waterfall images. Unfortunately, capturing the beauty of waterfalls isn't always that easy. Anyone can get a picture of a waterfall, but only a person with the proper photographic skills is likely to capture powerful waterfall images that grab people's attention.
Waterfalls provide their own unique set of problems which requires a unique set of solutions. This article is about those unique problems and the solutions that allow photographers to produce images that communicate the power and beauty that is inherent in the waterfalls that stand before their lenses. The first part of this article concentrates on setting up for a waterfall shoot. The later part concentrates on capturing the waterfall image.
The Best Waterfall Weather
Weather plays a huge part in producing great waterfall images. Quite simply, waterfalls do not photograph well in nice, sunny weather. The best time to photograph waterfalls is in overcast weather.
Some waterfalls photograph best in light overcast. Light overcast produces a light that is gentle but still has enough power to bring out the colors in a scene. Other waterfalls photograph best in strong overcast. Strong overcast can produce a very moody image with a power to convey that sense of mood. In fact, very powerful waterfall images can even be produced in rainy weather (during a break in the rain).
An Old Filter
Waterfalls produce a lot of mist. That mist has a tendency to end up on the camera lens. Large waterfalls can create a heavy mist due to the huge amount of water that flows down the waterfall. In other situations, fog, drizzle, or rain can settle on the lens. Of course, the wind exacerbates the problem as it moves the moisture around.
A partial solution is to place an old, clear filter in front of the lens while the equipment is being set up. Once you are ready to go, you will need to remove the filter from the lens in order to take the shot.
Tripod
To create a good waterfall image, a tripod is really necessary. Capturing the movement of the water down a waterfall is one of the biggest parts of taking a great waterfall shot. To properly capture the movement of the water, in such a way as to give a sense of the flow of the water, often requires a slow shutter speed. A slow shutter speed requires a tripod in order to prevent camera blur.
Manual White Balance
The lighting involved with waterfall shots can be tricky. In overcast or rainy conditions, the light will likely have a blue tint. If the waterfall is in a forest, the light may bounce off the trees and pick up a green tint. Thus, you must consider the white balance, (i.e., color of the light) when setting up the shot. Neither the auto white balance nor the preset white balance options on a camera will guarantee accurate white balance. The best solution is to perform a manual white balance (also known as a custom white balance). Your camera manual will explain how to perform a manual white balance for your particular camera.
Polarizers and Glare
Objects that are wet tend to produce glare. This glare is often polarized. This is particularly an issue with waterfall shots because the rocks and vegetation near the waterfall will be wet and will almost certainly have a certain amount of glare. A polarizer will remove the glare. In addition, a polarizer has a secondary effect. By removing the glare, the color saturation will improve.
Level the Camera
Your eyes are great for identifying beautiful waterfall opportunities, but they are not very good for telling you when your camera is level. Consequently, it is best to level the camera with a bubble level. A bubble level is inexpensive, small, and light weight. It fits into the hot shoe of your camera and is used just like a carpenter's level. You just center a little bubble between the lines and you are ready to take your shot with a nice level camera.
The camera should now be properly set up for the waterfall shoot. The rest of this article will delve into how to actually capture great waterfall images.
Composition
Identifying a strong composition is one of the most important parts of creating dynamic waterfall images. Of course, composition is a very big topic, so we will not attempt to cover it in detail. However, we will cover two composition topics: curves and environment.
Curves can make or break a waterfall image. With waterfalls, two types of curves are particularly important. The first type of curve is the curve formed by the water. Waterfalls that have water that flows or falls in such a way as to form curves tend to create much more interest than waterfalls where the water simply falls straight down. In essence, graceful curves add an element of elegance to a waterfall. The second type of curve is any curved object that points toward the waterfall. This type of curve will repeatedly direct the attention toward the waterfall and strengthen it as the center of interest.
The second major component of waterfall composition, covered in this article, is the environment surrounding the waterfall. This is extremely important to many waterfall shots. By itself, falling water is not always that interesting. Rather, it is the surrounding environment that gives waterfalls much of their character. Therefore, why not include some of that environment in the image to bring out the waterfall character? The surrounding rocks, trees, and vegetation can make the waterfall image come alive.
Shutter Speed Selection
What shutter speed should be used to blur the falling water? That seems to be the first question that people usually ask about shooting waterfalls. However, there is no such thing as one correct shutter speed for shooting waterfalls! Rather, the proper shutter speed is a function of five factors:
1. The amount of blur desired
2. The volume of water
3. The speed of the water
4. The distance between the camera and the waterfall
5. The direction of the water flow with respect to the lens
In short, the best shutter speed varies from one waterfall opportunity to another. At first, that might sound a little bit daunting, "How can I ever figure out the best shutter speed; it changes from one waterfall to the next?" Actually, with a digital camera, it is easy to find the best shutter speed. You can simply take some test shots at different shutter speeds and examine the results on the camera monitor. Zooming in on the monitor will allow you to see the water detail fairly well.
To start your testing, you might want to try the following. For large waterfalls that have copious amounts of water, a shutter speed around 1/100s will do a good job of capturing the violent nature of the water. For smaller waterfalls, where it is desired to create a blurred look to the water, shutter speeds between 1/2 second and 2 seconds generally work well.
Exposure
Getting the right exposure can sometimes be a challenge when photographing waterfalls. Probably, one of the biggest problems is that it is easy to clip the highlights in the water. What this means is that the detail in the water is lost, and the water becomes just a big area of pure white. When this happens, the water just doesn't look very real. The solution for this problem is to take a test shot of the waterfall and check the histogram on the monitor of your digital camera. If the histogram is cut off on the right side, the highlights have been clipped. If this is the case, the exposure needs to be decreased.
In Summary
With these tips, you should be on your way to capturing some great waterfall images.
If you would like to learn even more about photographing waterfalls, please check out Ron's full length waterfall article at Photographing Waterfalls. Want to learn more about taking powerful images? Visit Ron's free site at Ron Bigelow Photography to learn the skills that you can use to become a great photographer.
The Best Waterfall Weather
Weather plays a huge part in producing great waterfall images. Quite simply, waterfalls do not photograph well in nice, sunny weather. The best time to photograph waterfalls is in overcast weather.
Some waterfalls photograph best in light overcast. Light overcast produces a light that is gentle but still has enough power to bring out the colors in a scene. Other waterfalls photograph best in strong overcast. Strong overcast can produce a very moody image with a power to convey that sense of mood. In fact, very powerful waterfall images can even be produced in rainy weather (during a break in the rain).
An Old Filter
Waterfalls produce a lot of mist. That mist has a tendency to end up on the camera lens. Large waterfalls can create a heavy mist due to the huge amount of water that flows down the waterfall. In other situations, fog, drizzle, or rain can settle on the lens. Of course, the wind exacerbates the problem as it moves the moisture around.
A partial solution is to place an old, clear filter in front of the lens while the equipment is being set up. Once you are ready to go, you will need to remove the filter from the lens in order to take the shot.
Tripod
To create a good waterfall image, a tripod is really necessary. Capturing the movement of the water down a waterfall is one of the biggest parts of taking a great waterfall shot. To properly capture the movement of the water, in such a way as to give a sense of the flow of the water, often requires a slow shutter speed. A slow shutter speed requires a tripod in order to prevent camera blur.
Manual White Balance
The lighting involved with waterfall shots can be tricky. In overcast or rainy conditions, the light will likely have a blue tint. If the waterfall is in a forest, the light may bounce off the trees and pick up a green tint. Thus, you must consider the white balance, (i.e., color of the light) when setting up the shot. Neither the auto white balance nor the preset white balance options on a camera will guarantee accurate white balance. The best solution is to perform a manual white balance (also known as a custom white balance). Your camera manual will explain how to perform a manual white balance for your particular camera.
Polarizers and Glare
Objects that are wet tend to produce glare. This glare is often polarized. This is particularly an issue with waterfall shots because the rocks and vegetation near the waterfall will be wet and will almost certainly have a certain amount of glare. A polarizer will remove the glare. In addition, a polarizer has a secondary effect. By removing the glare, the color saturation will improve.
Level the Camera
Your eyes are great for identifying beautiful waterfall opportunities, but they are not very good for telling you when your camera is level. Consequently, it is best to level the camera with a bubble level. A bubble level is inexpensive, small, and light weight. It fits into the hot shoe of your camera and is used just like a carpenter's level. You just center a little bubble between the lines and you are ready to take your shot with a nice level camera.
The camera should now be properly set up for the waterfall shoot. The rest of this article will delve into how to actually capture great waterfall images.
Composition
Identifying a strong composition is one of the most important parts of creating dynamic waterfall images. Of course, composition is a very big topic, so we will not attempt to cover it in detail. However, we will cover two composition topics: curves and environment.
Curves can make or break a waterfall image. With waterfalls, two types of curves are particularly important. The first type of curve is the curve formed by the water. Waterfalls that have water that flows or falls in such a way as to form curves tend to create much more interest than waterfalls where the water simply falls straight down. In essence, graceful curves add an element of elegance to a waterfall. The second type of curve is any curved object that points toward the waterfall. This type of curve will repeatedly direct the attention toward the waterfall and strengthen it as the center of interest.
The second major component of waterfall composition, covered in this article, is the environment surrounding the waterfall. This is extremely important to many waterfall shots. By itself, falling water is not always that interesting. Rather, it is the surrounding environment that gives waterfalls much of their character. Therefore, why not include some of that environment in the image to bring out the waterfall character? The surrounding rocks, trees, and vegetation can make the waterfall image come alive.
Shutter Speed Selection
What shutter speed should be used to blur the falling water? That seems to be the first question that people usually ask about shooting waterfalls. However, there is no such thing as one correct shutter speed for shooting waterfalls! Rather, the proper shutter speed is a function of five factors:
1. The amount of blur desired
2. The volume of water
3. The speed of the water
4. The distance between the camera and the waterfall
5. The direction of the water flow with respect to the lens
In short, the best shutter speed varies from one waterfall opportunity to another. At first, that might sound a little bit daunting, "How can I ever figure out the best shutter speed; it changes from one waterfall to the next?" Actually, with a digital camera, it is easy to find the best shutter speed. You can simply take some test shots at different shutter speeds and examine the results on the camera monitor. Zooming in on the monitor will allow you to see the water detail fairly well.
To start your testing, you might want to try the following. For large waterfalls that have copious amounts of water, a shutter speed around 1/100s will do a good job of capturing the violent nature of the water. For smaller waterfalls, where it is desired to create a blurred look to the water, shutter speeds between 1/2 second and 2 seconds generally work well.
Exposure
Getting the right exposure can sometimes be a challenge when photographing waterfalls. Probably, one of the biggest problems is that it is easy to clip the highlights in the water. What this means is that the detail in the water is lost, and the water becomes just a big area of pure white. When this happens, the water just doesn't look very real. The solution for this problem is to take a test shot of the waterfall and check the histogram on the monitor of your digital camera. If the histogram is cut off on the right side, the highlights have been clipped. If this is the case, the exposure needs to be decreased.
In Summary
With these tips, you should be on your way to capturing some great waterfall images.
If you would like to learn even more about photographing waterfalls, please check out Ron's full length waterfall article at Photographing Waterfalls. Want to learn more about taking powerful images? Visit Ron's free site at Ron Bigelow Photography to learn the skills that you can use to become a great photographer.
