WATERFALL SECRETS

Go beyond long exposures, and discover how to combine a host of skills to take your waterfall photos up a gear with James Paterson

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2 HOURS

Waterfalls are one of the most enduringly enticing of landscape subjects, as from a photographer’s perspective there’s so much potential. First and foremost there’s the motion of the cascading water, which we can transform into a silky-smooth blur with a long exposure. Then there are the surrounding details like rocks, rivers and foliage, which can all add wonderful foreground interest. As such, any self-respecting photographer would reach for an ND filter, set up a long exposure and capture the motion in the water as beautiful blur. However, while this is often the best course of action, there are other less-obvious tricks and skills we can use in combination with our long exposures to elevate our waterfall photos.

Some of these tricks are performed entirely in-camera, while others require a combination of in-camera and post-production techniques. One such technique is shutter blending. Waterfall scenes tend to have a mixture of fast-moving water in the falls and slower-moving water in the river below, and as such, the right shutter speed for one area may not be ideal for another, but by using shutter blending we can combine the most attractive blur from different frames in Photoshop. We’ll also explore simple exposure-blending techniques and focus-stacking tricks, and explain how to get rid of troublesome tourists.

You won’t necessarily need to apply every one of these techniques to every waterfall photo, but it helps to be able to call upon them when needed.

Long-exposure essentials

1 USE A TRIPOD