Work, life, and culture in Japan and Asia

How to take photos: Waterfalls

Basic gear you need:

• Any lens is fine, but it depends on where you are and how much room you've got.
• A tripod with remote shutter release, or monopod

The Aim:

• To show flows, textures, patterns and such
• Get a great / dramatic picture

How:

• ISO: Usually, it's best to use iso100 so you have as little noise impacting on your picture as possible
• Aperture: Set your aperture to somewhere between F6.3 and F9, however your lens performs best.
• Shutter Speed: It depends on what you're aiming for, but generally to have a smooth flowing look, you'll use speeds of about 1/20, but again that depends on the light available. In the examples below, as some areas were dark I used a longer shutter speed. However, for one of the pictures, the falls were wide, and so I used f11 to make sure the depth of field was not too shallow, so it all looks nicely in focus.
• White Balance: Most waterfalls are in cool dark places, and so it might be best to use "shade" on your camera.
• Filters: Not needed. Possibly a ND filter to reduce the highlights.

Examples:

	Yoro Falls at Yoro, Mie, Japan. Seagull DF2-ETM, with Minolta MD 35-70mm, about 1/20sec, f3.5, Velvia 100. 11th July 2009.
	Yoro Falls at Yoro, Mie, Japan. Konica Minolta Alpha Sweet, Minolta 100mm 2.8 Macro lens, f11, 1.6sec, iso80. 11th July 2009.
	Yoro Falls at Yoro, Mie, Japan. Konica Minolta Alpha Sweet, with Minolta 28mm 2.8, f5, 1/25, iso100. 11th July 2009.
	Yoro Falls at Yoro, Mie, Japan. Konica Minolta Alpha Sweet, with Minolta 28mm 2.8, f4.5, 1/40, iso80. 11th July 2009.