Capturing waterfalls can be tricky because of changing seasonal conditions, but understanding how these shifts affect your photos makes your shots significantly better. Knowing how and when to visit specific locations can dramatically elevate your results.
Coming to you from Chris Baitson Photo, this insightful video guides you through photographing Falling Foss Waterfall in North Yorkshire during summer. Baitson emphasizes the significance of timing, highlighting how the dense, green canopy of summer softens harsh light conditions, creating a richer, more balanced exposure. He contrasts this experience with the challenges of capturing the same waterfall during autumn and winter, seasons where bare trees lead to stark, washed-out skies. He clearly illustrates how timing impacts not just the aesthetic, but the fundamental clarity and quality of the photo. It's a valuable insight for anyone seeking to elevate their landscape photography skills.
Throughout the video, Baitson practically demonstrates the value of composition, showing you exactly how he integrates foreground elements like mossy boulders and trees to frame the waterfall. He explains the purpose of a polarizing filter—beyond just cutting glare, it deepens the lush greens essential to summer waterfall photography. Baitson also thoughtfully walks through how he selects camera settings, particularly emphasizing avoiding overly long exposures, which risk washing out the texture and detail crucial to these scenes. Watching his step-by-step adjustments reveals why careful consideration of exposure time and aperture significantly influences the depth and sharpness of your shots.
An additional highlight is Baitson’s candid exploration of a secondary, more challenging composition featuring a sapling set against the waterfall. He narrates his creative reasoning, struggles briefly with practical elements like raindrops on his lens, and ultimately demonstrates adaptability in landscape photography. This approach underscores that great waterfall photography is not only about technical settings but also about responding creatively and practically to real-world conditions. His calm, problem-solving approach provides clear, relatable lessons on adapting your photographic techniques in real-time. Check out the video above for the full rundown from Baitson.
I prefer his last photo cropped much tighter to the waterfall... so nice, calm and peaceful. The one with a wide-angle lens that included the rock in the foreground seemed like too many elements, too busy, literally a lot of muddy color, less intimate connection with the falls... in my opinion.