Capturing pleasing images of waterfalls requires certain know-how and equipment including the right tools, techniques, timing, effort, and planning. Of course, your tools include a camera and lenses to record the moment in time; plus, the effort to learn techniques to correctly use those tools. It also takes effort to position yourself at the proper location to utilize your tools and technique. In this article, I will focus on two of the most overlooked elements for capturing beautiful waterfall images – timing and planning.
Like most photography, good lighting or even lighting makes achieving our goals easier. Photographers that spend a lot of time shooting waterfalls enjoy doing so on overcast or light raining days. On both occasions, the lighting is even or more consistent for the whole composition. Water that is falling (often called whitewater) can easily blowout your image if it is hit by direct sunlight. Cloudy days keep that from happening.
As much as we enjoy photographing waterfalls on cloudy or rainy days, we dislike photographing them after a heavy rain or after several days of light rain. This is due to the higher water levels in the river, the amount of water going over the falls, and the murky color of the water itself. The soft water effect created by technique looks best with cleaner water and less water volume cascading over the drop.
This leads to the planning stage of photographing Smoky Mountain waterfalls. If you live close to our waterfalls, you would watch weather predictions and choose the best conditions and timing in advance. However, when you have to book well in advance because you live a great distance away, you would look at those same conditions once you arrive. If you are here for a week and waterfalls are on your list, predict which day might be better for waterfall photography. So, when planning and timing waterfall photography, consider recent rainfall amounts, upcoming weather predictions, and select the best timing possible to capitalize on the conditions most suited for capturing pleasing images.