Waterfall Shots

2/5 sec.
48mm
f/36
ISO 200

When we went to Minnehaha Falls, I was able to play around with my new tripod (squeee!) and shutter speeds. I just wanted to share with you what a difference a tiny part of a second can make.

**disclosure: I don't really know all that much about photography, I just love doing it! So I'll share with you what I've learned ;-)

Now in order to get waterfalls looking like they flow vs. still water in the air, you do need to slow your shutter speed down quite a bit and of course use a tripod when doing this or it'll be a blury mess like this:


Now these next shots were all taken from the same location, at 55mm, ISO 200, and f/36 for the 1 & 3 and f/32 on the second one. As you may know, when you slower the shutter speed you are letting more light in the camera, and even though I was standing in the shade, the sun was right overhead. You can see the lightness difference in these three shots:
1. 2. 3.

1= 1 second . . . . . . . . . 2= 1/2 second . . . . . . . . . . . 3= 1/5 sec


Although I love the water flow in that first one, the shot is too light in my opinion. I prefer the contrast and colors of the third one. :-)

Thanks for reading!