I went out playing around shooting some water falls today. The one's that I shot early morning turned out nice! But being I traveled a few hours to get to some of these about 5 different falls. A couple I had to try shooting during the mid-day sun and it was clear.
Question is how do I not blow out the whites and have proper exposure for the surroundings "Rock/Vegetation? Also one of them I tried photo stacking as I had large rocks in the fore ground and wanted everything to be in focus.
Equipment Tripod / Wireless Shutter Release / Nikon Z9 / 14-24mm f/2.8 S / Kase 112mm Magnetic Filters anything from CPL & 3/6/10 Stop ND
Thanks for any insight.
Mike
PS Happy 4th I'll be trying more waterfalls again tomorrow
No doubt about it, shooting waterfalls in full sun can be tough. Trying to also do focus stacking would add another level of complexity. Another issue is that silky look. Personally I don't care for it and think it is way overdone and trite. You did not mention whether that was a consideration.
Personally I would try my utmost to avoid focus stacking and exposure stacking (HDR) with moving water or moving subjects of any kind. With some care in composing, I would try for a small aperture to help with DOF. Shooting close with a wide focal length also helps. If there are rocks or eddies or other subject matter close consider focusing on them and allowing the water and more distant objects to be a big softer. Then there is the power of newer software which allows brightening and pulling details out of the shadows. Just make sure your exposure compensation is set to avoid blowing out water highlights.
I do like that silky look. Maybe to me it just adds a little artsy touch to it.
Camperjim wrote:
Another issue is that silky look. Personally I don't care for it and think it is way overdone and trite. You did not mention whether that was a consideration.
Honestly, I've never seen a picture of a waterfall in full sun that looked good. Go when it's overcast or even lightly raining if you want to shoot waterfalls during mid day.
Right, I’ve never tried a multiple exposure shot on a waterfall. But might try a couple. What do I have to loose. Might go out for some evening shots hoping most everyone will be off for some fireworks 😎
Mike
OregonSun wrote:
Honestly, I've never seen a picture of a waterfall in full sun that looked good. Go when it's overcast or even lightly raining if you want to shoot waterfalls during mid day.
One technique I have used successfully is to make one proper exposure at a slow shutter speed to get the blur. I then take a 2nd exposure at a much faster shutter speed to partially or completely freeze the motion. I also increase the ISO so that I do not change the aperture. This 2nd layer with a hide-all layer mask can be stacked above the 1st exposure and painted in to taste. It is important not to change the aperture for the 2nd shot. This way you can paint in details where appropriate. That said, I've never been able to take a waterfall photo successfully in noon light. You end up with blown water highlights or black empty shadows. The 2nd layer trick works very well for moving water under even illumination. However, striking photos are often made by breaking the rules, so have at it. Just because I've never successfully made such an image doesn't mean it can't be done.
tonyespofoto wrote:
One technique I have used successfully is to make one proper exposure at a slow shutter speed to get the blur. I then take a 2nd exposure at a much faster shutter speed to partially or completely freeze the motion. I also increase the ISO so that I do not change the aperture. This 2nd layer with a hide-all layer mask can be stacked above the 1st exposure and painted in to taste. It is important not to change the aperture for the 2nd shot. This way you can paint in details where appropriate. That said, I've never been able to take a waterfall photo successfully in noon light. You end up with blown water highlights or black empty shadows. The 2nd layer trick works very well for moving water under even illumination. However, striking photos are often made by breaking the rules, so have at it. Just because I've never successfully made such an image doesn't mean it can't be done....Show more →
Speaking of broken rules and striking images, I am reminded of one a good friend of mine made of water moving over a rock in a stream in very bright light. The rule would have been to use a slow shutter speed and concentrate on the beauty of the moving water. Instead, Mickey used a fast shutter speed and showed the beauty of the colors of the stream bed and the frozen specular highlights. This image was made with a 5x7 view camera on Kodak CPS sheet film maybe 55 years ago. Even the film choice was unconventional. CPS was a portrait film with a very soft pallette and low contrast, similar to Kodak Portra films, but several generations back. The obvious choice would have been Ektachrome, which had contrast more suited to the subject. To this day the image sticks with me as a testiment to originality and the power of breaking rules.
Waterfalls mid-day are certainly a challenge, and you won't likely get the best possible result, but you can still get a really good result. The main challenge I have had in such situations is getting a long-enough exposure. If you can employ an ND filter (6 stops seems to work really well) you can keep your aperture in the ideal range while getting those longer exposures.
In a pinch, you can simulate a longer exposure by taking many shorter ones. I used this on a road trip when I did not have an ND to use; I shot this in the mid-morning with strong sun on the falls. Slowest shutter speed I could get was about 1/10s, so I shot more than 20 hand-held images in a burst and stacked them in post for a synthetic exposure time of about 2s or so.
The high contrast and deep shadows are another challenge, one that can be mitigated by bracketing and combining in post.
I'll be trying more waterfalls again tomorrow