Making Waterfalls and Streams Look Silky

When it comes to shooting waterfalls, we’re looking for that smooth, silky water (freezing the water looks . . . well . . . let’s just say it’s not what a pro would do), and there are some different ways to go about it. The good news is the water usually moves so rapidly you don’t need a very long exposure to get that silky water look—usually only two or three seconds, but sometimes even less. In fact, sometimes, you can get a long exposure like this without even using an ND filter, especially if the waterfall is in a forest, or if it’s a very overcast day—just set your f-stop to f/22 and if it’s not too bright outside, you’ll have instant silky water. Sometimes even a polarizing filter (see page 13) will darken the exposure enough to get you some decently silky water by keeping your shutter open a little longer than normal. Of course, you can always pop an ND filter on, but you probably won’t need something like a 10-stop ND—this is one of those rare situations when a 3-stop will probably do the trick. Just wanted to give you a couple of options when it comes to shooting waterfalls and streams.