How to Photograph Waterfalls

Niagara Falls, Fujifilm X-Pro 2, 16-50mm lens, ISO 200, 1/50s, f/5.6, 50mm

Waterfalls are one of the many natural beauties of the world. The photo above was taken while on a Trip to Niagara Falls some time back. Before getting to the waterfall, it is important to plan ahead and determine the kind of waterfall photograph that you are trying to take. The following questions are important:

• How much definition do you want in the water? Do you want to see motion and have reasonable definition or do you want the water to be completely smoothed out as shown in the image below?

• What time of day will you be taking the photograph? Early morning and late evenings are normally recommended but if you are going to waterfalls with lights such as Niagara falls, then it may be its own spectacle at night. If you have no control over the time but want smooth water in broad day light, you may need a neutral density filter.

• How close will you be able to get to the waterfall and what kind composition do you have in mind? Some of these may not be determined until you get to the location but looking online at photos could help. If it will be difficult to get to the waterfall, you may need a longer focal range lens to capture it at a distance or if there is a lovely composition with many elements that you can get close to, you may need a wider lens. If you will be close to the waterfall, you may need to bring some protection for your camera and lens such as a plastic bag to cover most of it. Waterfalls often have water sprays and droplets that may reach persons close enough.

• What kind of weather conditions will be present? I recommend checking the weather forecast well in advance to ensure that you are prepared. The images in this post were taking in the winter and temperatures were close to “Feel like -20 degrees Celsius” for both the morning and night shots. This required gloves, jackets and footwear in line with the conditions. It was still uncomfortable to the extent that we had to just stop shooting at one point and I was surprised that I retained the use of my fingers. I am still looking into more effective gloves. This will matter even more if your camera has mostly touch screen settings and will need to be mounted to a tripod.

Niagara Falls, Fujifilm X-Pro 2, 16-50mm lens, ISO 250, 6 seconds, 16mm

Photographing a waterfall at night

The image above was taken at night on a tripod. The water itself is very smooth because of the 6 second shutter speed. This is a contrast to the 1/50th of a second shutter speed used in the first photograph.

For night photographs of a waterfall, prioritize the following:

• Bring a Tripod or find a stable surface

• Lower ISO numbers

• Slower shutter speed

• A narrower aperture (higher f/number)

If you would prefer the water to look more like the first image but at night, it will require maintaining a similar shutter speed of 1/50th of a second. To achieve this without a horrendously high ISO, may need a f/1.4 aperture lens wide open while paying careful attention to the focus point. I normally take these types of photos in RAW format on the camera. This will allow me to adjust the white balance in post processing after and allow the highest possible quality output if I decide to print the image later on.

Step 1: Place the camera on the tripod. Frame the scene in the most ideal way and try to set the camera level with the horizon.

Step 2: Set the ISO to the lowest recommended number. We can increase the ISO as we go to get a higher shutter speed if the water appears to be too smooth for your liking.

Step 3: Set the aperture to f/7.1 or a similar number to guarantee most of the frame will be in focus. If you do have a special scenario where it is required to set the aperture to something like f/1.4, ensure that the focus point is on the waterfalls itself or you may have to take chances setting it to infinity if you are far enough away. This may result in some blurred out details in the foreground but may create a nice effect from a composition point of view.

Step 4: Use autofocus to set the focus point and then change it to manual focus. This will hopefully ensure that it doesn’t shift during taking the photo. If you end up moving the camera slightly to adjust the composition, ensure that you set the focus again. It is entirely possible to have the image appear to be in focus on the back of a low resolution camera screen but actually be out of focus when viewed on a computer.

Step 5: Take the photograph of the waterfall. You can use a remote shutter release if you have one or set a timer to delay the taking of the photo by a few seconds. This is to avoid camera shake. When the camera is taking a 6 second photo, ANY movement at all could show up as a blur and create ghosting artifacts in the photo. I sometimes take photos of waterfalls without doing any of this and still get sharp images but the risk still exists.

Niagara Falls, Fujifilm X-Pro 2, 16-50mm lens, ISO 200, 1/200s, f/4.5, 16mm

Photographing a waterfall in the Day

The waterfall photo above was taken in the morning shortly after sunrise. Because water moves so quickly, the sense of motion still exists at the 1/200th of a second shutter speed. If we wanted to blur the water in a similar way to how it is blurred in the night photo, we would need to reduce the shutter speed to 6 seconds. This would result in an overexposed image as the ISO already set to 200. We would have the following options:

• Use a narrower aperture (higher f/number) to allow less light to enter the lens. Some lenses are softer at the smallest aperture but these will require testing and research to determine if this is the case with your lens.

• If the image is still overexposed after using a small aperture (higher f/number), the shutter speed will need to be increased to achieve correct exposure. This will make the water less smooth but may still be smooth enough for the look that you had in mind. This is what was done with the first image in this post which has a shutter speed of 1/50th of a second.

• If the image isn’t smooth enough after increasing the shutter speed, a neutral density filter will be needed for your lens. A neutral density filter is basically dark glasses for your lens. They are sold in various “stops” which indicate how dark they are and various filter sizes. When buying a ND filter, ensure that the size matches your lens. By using an ND filter to block some of the light, the shutter speed, ISO or aperture will need to be adjusted to compensate. This allows us to increase the shutter speed to achieve the desired effect.

Steps 2 to 6 in the other section above apply here but the tripod or stable surface may be optional based on the the scene and shutter speed. Some lenses with image stabilization will allow you to hand hold the camera with a shutter speed of 1/15th of a second or lower when taking the photo.

Thank you for reading all the way to the end. If you have any questions or comments, please leave a comment below.