Photographing waterfalls - which way is best?

[Liamy77]

good feeling of depth on the middle shot - nice

[Hallu]

I really hate the slow shutter looks, it looks totally fake, I think it gives a soft and gentle look to a waterfall which is at its best when it's savage and powerful.

[neilmny]

I won't say I hate the slow shutter speed look but I don't like it.
I prefer to capture what I see. For me it has to look real.
The furry slow speed shots look un natural.

[tasadam]

Sometimes all that can be achieved is slow shutter, due to available light.

From memory, this image was taken using a shutter speed of 30 seconds, ISO 100, and a relatively high F stop value to get good depth of field (though of note, wider angles make really high f stop values less critical, so experiment).

A faster shutter would mean I would need to adjust something else, likely ISO, but I would need to go quite high to get near a speed that would capture the motion (as opposed to blur it).
That would of course make the image grainy (also called noise).

So you work with what you have and try for the best result possible under the conditions available to you.

[Davo1]

Certainly some diverse ideas being kicked around.
I am no expert but my personal preference leans slightly towards the softer look.
Now this is not always possible, especially if the fall is in a rip roaring flood, not so bad on a huge fall but a smaller one can't cope, it just looks like a horrible mess (MO).
I think you have to take each day and each fall on its merit.
If it is a dainty little fall with not much water going over then a high speed shot can result in basically looking at nothing but a longer shot can produce a nice quality pic.
Again as mentioned, light also comes into play. When we are out there walking around we don't always have the time the sit around and wait so we make the most of a not always perfect scenario.
I know many a time I have beeen somewhere and ended up saying "oh well best come back another day at a different hour"
If you take the best photo you can under the given conditions at the time, that's all you can do whether it be a fast or slow shutter speed.
If you don't like it then you may have to go back and be prepared to sit for a day or two.

In short my preference - if its got a ton of water and you want the power, then fast does the trick, if its slow and not a lot of water then slow adds a bit of character.

Thank goodness we are all different in our likes and dislikes otherwise it sure would be dull.

And thanks for the pics that have been posted, I enjoyed them all.

[wildernesswanderer]

Can't add much more to this thread about how to shoot waterfalls but to me the best time to shoot any waterfall is after a little light rain, it washes the leaves, the rocks and surrounds. I will usually take two photo's one with and one without a polariser, while the polariser will kill reflections and boost colour saturation sometime it looks nicer without the reflections killed.

Another point to think about is white balance, some of the images posted have a severe blue cast, and I'm not talking about just in the water, it's though the foliage and should be fixed, this will also pop the image more and a couple of images posted have been contrast boosted to much or the black slider in Lightroom or levels pushed to high, blocking up all the shadows. You want a touch of shadow detail in the images especially if you are going to print

[tasadam]

Another point to think about is white balance

Indeed. It isn't hard to get the colours right in post-processing - sure sometimes the camera gets it wrong, and while it's an impost to take grey cards, generally it's possible to get the photo looking right without much trouble when editing on computer.
There are a stack of photos with way too much blue, then there are others with the yellow channel way too strong.
The thing is, some people like that - and that's fine. But I prefer a natural look when it comes to colour balance.

[GPSGuided]

To me, the best way is with a tripod! The trouble is, so often I short change myself on this due to laziness.