The Landscape Photography Book

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 ...