Photographing water and waterfalls is a great way to understand and learn how filters can change the way you use your camera. In this guide we will use what’s called an ND Filter or Neutral Density filter to create a misty effect on water and all its movement and motion.

An ND Filter is a glass fitted to the front of the camera either by screw mount or a holder such as the Lee Filter system, that allows the photographer to slip in glass of their choosing and prevent or slow light down reaching the sensor.

Neutral Density come in many flavors and for shooting waterfalls or water sources in good light, they are essential. ND Filters block light from reaching your sensor, much to the same effect as closing the aperture on your lens allowing for long exposure even in daylight.

Another filter that’s super handy is a circular polarizer. It’s very useful for removing glare from rocks and wet surfaces and such that may over expose parts of the image that could be distracting. You can twist the circular polarizer to remove the amount of glare keep a close eye on your viewfinder as you do so and twist to taste. Try not to overcompensate as that will affect the exposure in a few dramatic ways, which will also be clear on the quality of filter glass you bought. Try and avoid any filters that are unbelievably cheap, as they can impact the overall image if the light can’t pass through well to your sensor. If it’s cheap, it’s cheap for a good reason.

Combining these filters can give you complete control over how the image will come out, long before you visit Capture One or Lightroom. So experiment as much as you can to understand how these work together and view in camera or tether to a computer as you shoot if you can, although that might not be feasible if you are close to water.

Hopefully you already have found a location with a waterfall (or beach with a good tide), so set up your tripod, and take some sample shots, leaving the exposure for a few seconds and checking the results each time. It’s a good idea to set your focus before you add any filters and do not use AWB as the camera will change the setting slightly each time, so once the filter is added to the camera you can set the white balance manually. 

There is a good level of trial and error for this kind of shooting but a great place to start is keeping your ISO low to 100 or 200 and using a small f stop such as f8, f11, f16 or even f22. You may need to change depending on the level of ambient light surround your waterfall or water subject.

Make sure you use a shutter release so you don’t get any camera shake and turn off any Long Exposure (LR) or Noise Reduction (NR) processing the camera has built into it.

If you find the scene is too dark but the level of smooth water is good, then you can just nudge your ISO slightly or change the shutter for just a second longer and work backwards. You can approach this a few ways using A (aperture) Priority, a low ISO and use the aperture size to control the shutter speed, although you do not want to go below f/5.6 for example. Else you may need a to swap your ND filter for another one that stops less light or you can deal with it in post production. 

If that is difficult before of the type of lens you have or there is very limited light / camera performance. The go full M (manual) mode and start at ISO200 f11 or even f16 with a shutter speed of around 1/3rd before you add the filters. Add the filters and then start to shoot. Depending on your filter you may need to start shooting with a 10 second shutter speed, if your using a “Big Stopper” than you will need to start from around 20 seconds.