9 Useful Tips on Photographing Waterfalls

One of my favorite disciplines of landscape photography is to photograph waterfalls. If you go through my portfolio there is a waterfall or two in there. Here I share nine useful tips to photograph them.

In my latest video, I visit a couple of waterfalls in the beautiful archipelago Lofoten in Northern Norway and share my tips on how I photograph them. Lofoten is one of the most famous areas for landscape photography and for good reason. Epic mountains, fjords, seashores, red cabins, and of course the northern lights. What Lofoten is not particularly known for are waterfalls and those which are there are relatively small.

That is why it is about getting the most out of them. One tip I share in the video is to get low and I do not just mean low, I mean very low. Have the camera just above the waterline and close to any small stream, you can find. You might end up having to focus stack the photo, but it is very well worth it. Just check out the thumbnail for this article or video. In this particular case, I also had to use the small tripod I usually use for vlogging.

Another tip I share is to move a bit back and make a long exposure of the entire waterfall. It does not have to be a long long-exposure of the waterfall, but just enough to make the streaks visible. Analyzing this photo can help you see how the water flows in the streams and cascades, which can give you an idea of where to place your camera for an optimal composition. That is exactly what I did to find one of the photos I show in the video.

Check out the video for the other seven tips and let me hear if you have more tips to share about photographing waterfalls down in the comments.

Mads Peter Iversen's picture

Danish Fine Art Landscape Photographer and YouTuber. He is taking photos all over the world but the main focus is the cold, rough, northern part of Europe. His style is somewhere in between dramatic and colorful fantasy and Scandinavian minimalism. Be sure to check out his YouTube channel for epic landscape photography videos from around the world.

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