Filters for Waterfall Photography

What filters do you actually carry/use for waterfalls?

I am using the NiSi JetMag Pro system. The one you see above, actually. It is what is called their Landscape Kit. It includes a Circular Polarizer, a 3 stop ND, a 6 stop ND, and a 10 stop ND. It also includes the magnetic adapters and a magnetic front lens cap.

Generally, I recommend that everyone have a circular polarizer when shooting waterfalls. I will not shoot water without one. It makes such a huge difference in your images. The job of a circular polarizer is to remove glare and reflections. If you are photographing water, it is like a mirror and reflects. Whether you think it is or not, it is. Generally, it is reflecting the sky. Using a polarizer eliminates that glare and makes the image much more pleasing for the viewer.

If you are going for that slow, silky water effect, you are going to need a bit of a "slower" shutter speed. The circular polarizer will help with that a bit, because it will cause a little less light to reach your sensor than not using one at all. In general, most polarizers will prevent around 1 stop of light. That will aid us in achieving that slower shutter speed.

I also carry the 3, 6 and 10 stop ND filters along in the bag. A ND, or neutral density, filter allows you to prevent even more light from reaching your sensor. And, they will prevent the amount of stops of light reaching the sensor that they are labeled as. So, a 3 stop ND prevents 3 stops of light from reaching your sensor, and so on with the 6 and 10 stop. These filters really aid in slowing the shutter speed down for that desired silky effect we are after.

I will use these if I feel like I need a slower shutter speed to get the effect I am after than what I am getting without them. For example, if I think the scene looks better at a 1-second shutter speed and without an ND I am only getting 1/8th of a second without one, then I will reach for the 3 stop ND.

Do you stack any of them together?

The answer to any photography question is always, it depends. :)

So, it depends. If I feel I need a longer shutter speed than what I am getting with the polarizer alone, then yes I will stack an ND on. It is super easy to stack these magnetic filters, it is as easy as popping another filter on the front of your other filter and letting the magnets do the rest.

One word of caution, especially with wider angle lenses, stacking too many filters could cause a vignette. One technique I use to help avoid this is by using a larger diameter filter than my lens thread normally uses. Let me explain...

A lot of my Tamron lenses have a 67mm filter thread. I will use the 82mm JetMag Pro filters on them with a 67mm-82mm magnetic adapter. Using the larger filters helps to eliminate the possibility of a stack of filters creating a vignette.

Roughly what shutter speed / look are you going for when you use them?

Again....it depends.

There a few different factors in how I determine the desired shutter speed. One is how much water is flowing. If there is a lot of water flowing, a longer shutter speed could cause us to lose a lot of the detail in the water itself. Let's say I want a 1-second shutter speed but there is so much water flowing that that shutter speed is causing a loss of detail and blown highlights in the water, then I simply choose a faster shutter speed.

Another factor is how fast the water is flowing. If you have a very slow trickle of water, then the water could disappear all together in the image if you have too long of a shutter speed. Luckily (assuming you already own a memory card) digital film is pretty cheap. You can take an image, look at the camera's LCD and check your histogram, then make adjustments and take another image.

I'd rather get there when the light is right.

I mentioned that I will never shoot water without a polarizer, but I often shoot without ND filters. I had rather be there when the light is right and not need the additional filters, but I have them as tools in case I do need them.

On note, my favorite time to photograph waterfalls is on an overcast day. In fact, I'd almost choose to photograph them during a light rain (be sure to pack your lens cloth). Remember, we are trying to slow our shutter speed down and the more light we have, the harder that is to do.

I also understand that sometimes we can't always be at a place we want when the light is at its best (I know a lot of times if I am on vacation the light is at its worst). That's when we would need to break out those ND filters.