How to take a still pic of waterfall

[Carb63]

Hello ladies and gentlemen,

I need your assistance on the right setting for a waterfall pic. I was trying to take the pic so the water will have that silk smooth look to it. Can someone direct me to possible ways to get this look. It was a bright and sunny day. What settings can accomplish this? I also had a N16 polar pro shutter series filter on it. Should I use those , or should I try it w/o. Please advise. TIA.

 

[passedpawn]

Hello ladies and gentlemen,

I need your assistance on the right setting for a waterfall pic. I was trying to take the pic so the water will have that silk smooth look to it. Can someone direct me to possible ways to get this look. It was a bright and sunny day. What settings can accomplish this? I also had a N16 polar pro shutter series filter on it. Should I use those , or should I try it w/o. Please advise. TIA.

You want to put the strongest filter on there. It'll cut the light down and force a long exposure time, which will give you the blur you're looking for. It's the real purpose of those ND filters.

To be honest, I have a set of them and have not used them yet because I haven't had the need.

 

[Meta4]

I need your assistance on the right setting for a waterfall pic. I was trying to take the pic so the water will have that silk smooth look to it. Can someone direct me to possible ways to get this look.

There's only one way.
You need to shoot with a shutter speed of 1/15th or longer.
Waterfalls also look good at regular shutter speeds too.

 

[passedpawn]

There's only one way.
You need to shoot with a shutter speed of 1/15th or longer.
Waterfalls also look good at regular shutter speeds too.

But on a sunny day, won't that overexpose without the filter in place?

 

[Carb63]

You want to put the strongest filter on there. It'll cut the light down and force a long exposure time, which will give you the blur you're looking for. It's the real purpose of those ND filters.

To be honest, I have a set of them and have not used them yet because I haven't had the need.

The highest I have is an nd 32 maybe I should order the n64 ?
Visiting another waterfall in fawns leap Fawns creek , NY. Later this month. What do you think ?

 

[jeplane]

This is 0.6 seconds at f/2.8 with a 16 ND filter, at dawn.

 

[Carb63]

Hello ladies and gentlemen,

I need your assistance on the right setting for a waterfall pic. I was trying to take the pic so the water will have that silk smooth look to it. Can someone direct me to possible ways to get this look. It was a bright and sunny day. What settings can accomplish this? I also had a N16 polar pro shutter series filter on it. Should I use those , or should I try it w/o. Please advise. TIA.

 

[Carb63]

View attachment 81102


This is 0.6 seconds at f/2.8 with a 16 ND filter, at dawn.

Wow. That’s beautiful !!! Great pic. My waterfall is truly a small one. Lmao. Practicing. Lol

 

[Bob1956]

Even with filters, shooting a waterfall in bright sunlight can be tough. I might also suggest going there at different times . Early morning, evening . You’ll be surprised.

 

[Carb63]

View attachment 81102


This is 0.6 seconds at f/2.8 with a 16 ND filter, at dawn.

Wow. That’s amazing !! What kind of bird ? I have a mavic pro.

 

[passedpawn]

The highest I have is an nd 32 maybe I should order the n64 ?
Visiting another waterfall in fawns leap Fawns creek , NY. Later this month. What do you think ?

On a sunny day, just film traffic going by and analyze the picture after. You'll get a feel for how much blur. Look at the metadata and note the exposure time the camera used.

You probably should put camera in Shutter Priority mode ("S") and practice using that and the filters on a sunny day. As meta said above, you need a slow shutter speed, under 1/60 for sure ( the shutter speed is responsible for the blur). On a sunny day, it'll be over-exposed though. Just choose a strong enough filter that allows keeps the image from being overexposed.
There is a "zebra stripe" feature that you can enable that shows "blown out" over-exposed parts of the image. You might consider turning that on. It's in the DJI GO 4 settings, can't remember the name of the option at the moment.

 

[jeplane]

Wow. That’s amazing !! What kind of bird ? I have a mavic pro.

MP2

 

[passedpawn]

 

[passedpawn]

View attachment 81103

Haha, the exposure time was 1/1779 @ f1.8 (with your iPhone). You'll have to do better than that

 

[Meta4]

But on a sunny day, won't that overexpose without the filter in place?

It very well could ... if you don't do something to balance the exposure.
But if you want silky water you can't get it without making a long exposure.
There are multiple ways to deal with light levels.
For a start, you don't have to do it at midday on a sunny day.

 

[passedpawn]

It very well could ... if you don't do something to balance the exposure.
But if you want silky water you can't get it without making a long exposure.
There are multiple ways to deal with light levels.
For a start, you don't have to do it at midday on a sunny day.

I think it's quite convenient to be able to simulate dusk/dawn with a snap-on filter.

 

[Meta4]

I think it's quite convenient to be able to simulate dusk/dawn with a snap-on filter.

It's up to you to manage proper exposure and filters are obviously one way to do that and essential if you choose to shoot in bright sunlight.

 

[mwe]

ND filters work, but there are limitations: Exposure time can not be too long, otherwise the picture will become unsharp overall because of little drifts. In sunny weather you may not get long enough exposure time at all. What you can also do if you have access to Photoshop: Take a sequence of video (highest res possible, cinelike) and stack a long time exposure in Photoshop from those pictures. There are a lot of Tutorials for this (search: photoshop long time exposure).

 

[gnirtS]

Waterfalls are generally best shot on a cloudy day to avoid harsh light, reflections and issues with exposure.
Even on real cameras shooting a waterfall in direct sunlight is tough.

You'll need a big ND filter to try to get the shutter speed to 1/2 a second or so and need to shoot in bursts and take the clearest shot with least motion blur. And ideally a calm day (although big falls themselves produce an outflowing wind which can be strong).

 

[Mossiback]

You can also use the histogram to gauge exposure.