For this location in Milan I made a different composition than usual view of Arco della Pace. I moved towards the side of Corso Sempione at the height of the passage reserved for the preferential lane. The purpose of the photo was to portray the arch and trails as vehicles passage
I made a series of bracketing shots for the basic situation of the shot and a series of long exposures to capture light trails. About light trails I had to wait for the twilight to start to capture and make them much more visible, in any case I used a 3 stop ND filter to increase the exposure time
WORKFLOW EXPLANATION
To begin with I blended all my shots using TTS Pro auto blending feature and luminosity masks to make adjustments about lights, shadows, contrasts etc…
Once obtained a balanced shot between the various exposures I masked out some unwanted stuff in the scenes, like some ghosting people and other small stuff in front of me
I increased the colors of the sky increasing vibrance, also incresed details and sharpen always using luminosity masks
After this I added from the other exposures all the light trails captured, I duplicate some of this light trails layers and changing the blending mode of them between screen and lighten to create different lights effect between them
I added a soft cold filter and decreased a bit the luminosity of the whole frame, as last touch I added a dark vignette to better enhance the view on the arch
I always hope you will find this usefull. Love to ear that from you!
I took this photo from Riva degli schiavoni, which is one of my favorite spots in Venice, here it is possible to benefit from a beautiful view on the island San Giorgio. Furthermore, this is an excellent photographic location to shoot away from tourists and people, just not find people staying on the dock taking selfies 🙂
I took this photo even a few years ago with a different shot, I am attaching the post here and here, I changed by going up to the quay this time and proposing a vertical shot
The best result in this spot at my advice is shooting with a long exposure, in order to make the movement of the gondolas particular in the composition and try to keep foreground interesting with the church in the background, an interesting sky will complete the composition very well 🙂
WORKFLOW EXPLANATION
I capture a series of bracketed shot to make a exposure blend that I merged using TTS Pro, I increased details and colors vibrance in the whole frame, also decreased highlights using luminosity masks applied selectively to the sky
Always using luminosity masks I fix contrast and all the shadows and highlights in the image. I correct the perspective that was extremely low, using perspective warp in Photoshop I aligned the horizon line with the poles in the background
I increased just a bit the glow of the image using orton effect, fixed the lights around the dock and added a soft vignette to the image
I really hope you will find this usefull, I always love to ear that from you!
Images from the San Benedetto waterfalls, I photographed the main waterfall and the main course of the river that follows on the right side
This small very suggestive place is located a few kilometers from Rome, the waterfalls with their swimming pond are a natural oasis for those who decide in summer to take a bath immersed in nature or to take an excursion to a small natural oasis
I photographed the main waterfall through a with a framing in the composition, after having made several tests also considering the distance, this composition seemed to me the best 🙂
the second shot I propose it instead as an auxiliary to the first as it traces the course of the river that derives from the waterfall, a very close view of the river
WORKFLOW EXPLANATION
For both images the workflow was very similar, after digital blend the images using different exposures, I increased details and fixed lights and contrasts with luminosity masks
I launched a soft orton effect to create more atmosphere at the image and applied a warm filter to the highlights especially in the main waterfall image where I create a glow effect on the top right to intensify the warm light coming from the sky
With the help of dodge and burn I darkened some part of both images was too overexposed, I darkened a bit the images and I added for both a fade film effect with a 50% opacity
As last step I create a strong vignette through my panel TTS Pro
I always hope you will find this usefull. Love to ear this from you!
From the same location I talked last time here is another shot of milky way in the suggestive village of Rocca Calascio
To take this shot I moved to the other side of the ruin in order to capture the door illuminated by the light of the castle during the night. Through a series of shots I managed to decrease the strong brightness that characterized the door due to the long exposure necessary to capture the milky way
I followed the same editing steps of the previous post capturing several exposures in order to generate the output image as I had imagined. So I captured some shots with and without the subject and another with higher ISO to make the milky way better visible
WORKFLOW EXPLANATION
I started stacking all the images into Photoshop and worked with smart object and median, in order to obtain a noise free base shot. Nevertheless, after this process the milky way loses some details, for this I used another exposure captured to work specifically on milky way on Camera Raw. With this shot I made the milky way look its best, then with a layer mask I masked the milky way treated on the image obtained in median
After this I used another exposure to paste inside the subject in the frame, in fact I used all separate shots to make this kind of image in order to obtain the best clean result
With the final image obtained I started working on the lights and on the shadows with the help of luminosity masks selectively. With dodge and burn I pushed up brightness and colours on the milky way, than I darkened some part of the foreground to create a more concentrated focus in the center
As latest steps I fixed colours and general luminosity, warming some highlights and making a more uniform look with the lights of the horizon
I hope you will find this usefull. I like to ear this from you!
Anyone who has been following me for many years knows that this place is one of my favorites for capturing seascape images. I come back here on this cliffhouse annually… if only for a short time to enjoy the beauty of the area as well as being able to capture images of long exposures on these cliffs
This place has the distinction of having often beautiful sunsets beyond that small house built on the rocks. Here I made a focus stacking between the rocks that were lower down and all the other elements of the photo
For the sea, I captured various long exposures with a ND filter -3 stops, to keep the water with some textures, I waited here all the golden hour but it is during the blue hour where the colors of the sky literally exploded … with colors that went from yellow to blue passing through purple
I captured all the shots that I then blended in Photoshop, the detail below
WORKFLOW EXPLANATION
I blended the image using focus stacking technique, it was necessary just a couple of images to make focus stack between the first rocks and the background, the shooting position was in fact not too close as the sea was strong enough I kept away from it 🙂
After realizing the focused image with the help of TTS Pro panel, I digital blended the images to benefit for the best sky and for the best long exposure on water. About this the water is the result of 2 images of waves crashing on the rocks an another one for the rest of the sea
After increasing details and fixed contrast around the rocks, I fixed sky tones and highlights using luminosity masks. I launched a cold filter for the foreground and a soft warm filter for the sky
I also increased the whole colours vividness of the whole image using my panel and I softly retouched some rocks with dodge and burn. As last steps I removed some distracting elements on the frame especially for those was in the corner
Near Rome there is this graceful waterfall which takes the name of Mola like the millstone located next to an old mill, built in the 1500s. The artifact was used for the milling of wheat from flour, exploiting the waters of the river
The waterfall is surrounded by greenery a few kilometers from the town and the canalization works, the lock and the remains of the tuff perimeter walls are still visible from the old mill
I captured this shot using focus stacking technique so capturing a series of exposures near the foreground water and another series for the trees, no other shots was necessaries for the mid elements
WORKFLOW EXPLANATION
I blended all the shots captured using focus stacking in order to create the image perfectly focused. In this shot I also used another technique which I have never talked about so far but which I promise to deepen in the coming months, that is the perspective blending
With the use of perspective blending I corrected the perspective between the water in the foreground and the waterfall which was distorted by the vertical line, it often happens that moving the angle of view too low, the images in the background are excessively affected by the distortion of the wide angle but correcting properly the perspective can achieve a optimal result
Once corrected all I started adding details, contrasts and correcting the lights using TTS Pro panel, after this I added orton effect, I love this effect in nature sceneries and the glow tool over the water and the sky
I increased the yellow colors using luminosity masks applied to shadows and blue tones applied to highlights. I also fixed the vibrance of colors and the whole luminosity of the shot
As final step I also added a manual vignette to the foreground
I really hope you will find this usefull! I like e to ear this from you!
I shot for three consecutive days in this location in search of the best clouds and the most interesting colors, at the end I preferred for this image in focusstacking with this rock in the foreground using two different focuses between foreground and the mountain. I used a nd filter with -6 stops to make this, I love the submerged part of the rock blurred by the long exposure of the water
This area is one of my favorite locations to photograph the sea. I’m talking about Cilento area in the south of Italy. I love the rocky beaches with the mountain in the background typical of this area. The sunsets here are always very special and full of beautiful colors, every year I try to spend a few days here taking these colorful seascapes
WORKFLOW EXPLANATION
I captured this with 5 brackedet shots that I merged using TTS Pro with digital blending creating 2 different shots that I blended with focusstacking. With luminosity masks I fixed the highlights in the sky and I lightened the darker parts of the rocks
After increasing the color vibrances, I used dodge and burn to fix some darker areas around the rocks and darkened the general luminosity of the picture using a vignette
I increased the contrast applying luminosity masks to curves adjustment layer, after a general layer fixes a gived a soft orton effect to create a soft glow effect
I hope you will find this usefull! I love to ear that from you!
During this shot the sun was lowering in the sky and the colors of the sunset began, I captured the vertical scene to give the viewer a greater sense of movement between the waterfall and the mountain
This photo spot come next to the lake photographed in my last post, in fact I found this small artificial waterfall very close to the lake, probably the waterfall is used as energy source, the small costruction maybe is a energy cabin
I used a bridge that passed over it to benefit from a facilitated composition to portray both the flow of the waterfall and all the beautiful scenery that was behind it
I used a 3 stop ND filter since the light was not very strong I only tried to apply a filter that could give me more exposure without lengthening the exposure times too much
WORKFLOW EXPLANATION
I blended the shots using TTS Pro using auto blend darks function, than painting the darker areas with luminosity masks in order to recover the exposure in the darker areas using the brighter exposure
I made some adjustmesnts using clone stamp tool and I fixed perspective on the house, increased the sunset colors appliyng a warm filter to luminosity masks and increasing the highlights into the sun direction
After adding orton effect I applied dodge and burn with a warm brush over the water and on the rocks on the foreground. I lightened some other spot of the image using luminosity masks increasing darks and some highlights
As final touch I incresed the vibrance colors of the frame reducing the opacity to 60%
I hope you will find this usefull! I’m happy to ear this from you!
During my photographic trips it often happens to be in the places that have waterfalls nearby and every time I don’t miss the opportunity to go and visit some of them. The reason for this is that in addition to their natural beauty and charm of the fullness of nature they have an incredible variety
Waterfalls also represent an incredible photographic spot for every landscape photographer for the context in which they are often inserted and for the possibility of photographing them from multiple angles, radically changing the perspective and the sensations that are transmitted to the viewer
So in this article we will see all you need to know to photograph waterfalls starting from necessary equipments up to shooting tips
WHAT YOU WILL NEED
Tripod: One of the essential requirements for every long exposure shot is a sturdy tripod, when using the tripod in the field always consider the slippery surfaces that are around the falls, explore the position well to find the right pov
Lenses: in most cases it happen to photograph the falls with the help of a wide angle lenses, these lenses are the best to include as much as possible of the scenery around the waterfall and allows to create good compositions with foreground, rocks, water etc. It is also interesting trying different angles, for example with 24-70 (it depends on the waterfall) to have a closer look of the scene
ND Filters: this is the part of your gear that in many cases manages to give that extra touch to the movement of your waterfall. It is not required a strong ND because the waterfalls are almost always found in wooded areas and with not too strong lighting, a 3 – 6 stop is usually what I use most
At the same time happened to me to photograph waterfalls even without any filter to catch the movement in a different way or simply because I liked the flow of water as it was
Waterfall captured without ND Fiters
SHOOT IN THE RIGHT MOMENT
Unlike many landscapes, waterfall photography can be done in different conditions, if usually in landscape photography you try to avoid gray and flat skies or rainy days, these are instead the ideal days to take the waterfalls. So cloudy day will helps so much to create a natural soft light to your waterfall
It is also possible to photograph waterfalls in sunny days to take advantage of the sunlight that filters through the leaves of the vegetation to have beautiful light effects, in this cases you have to pay attention to the water reflections and avoid to keep them too overexposed or creating too much contrasted areas
Waterfall captured during Sunset
CAMERA SETUP
Iso: Since you’re using a tripod to photograph waterfalls use the lowest ISO possible, this will reduce the noise and capture the most dynamic range
Shutter Speed: The key is to use slows shutter speed, I usually move through f13 or f18 it depends of what filter I am using for the shot, I try to avoid diaphragms totally closed to for this kind of photo unless it should also include sun spikes
Manual Mode and Manual Focus: If you are using ND filters on waterfall, manual mode is a must because the camera didn’t always choose the aperture I needed to get the right depth of field.
Manual Focus it is a very important requirement to have the sharpest images possible, it constitutes that added value to your landscape photography, to better master manual focus read this article
Waterfall composition example
Compose the Waterfall Scene: This is the most important point, composing the frame doesn’t mean simply photography a waterfall but capture it’s movement, the envinroments that composed it. Every waterfall has a lot of vegetation, rocks, trees, leaves around it. The goal is to capture an image that includes the waterfall within the context in which it is located, this will make the image much more interesting for the viewer
Always Watch Highlights: In waterfall photography the water probably will be your primary subject, so the best choice will be to expose to the waterfall in order to control the highlights on the water. Always check the instogram to control the shot and avoid too much underexposed/overexposed areas
Freeze Trees: Capturing one shot of the scene without the use of filters or long exposures is important for having a static image of the waterfall and its surroundings. Waterfalls are often in wooded environments full of leaves and trees that can move and move with the wind making all the leaves fuzzy. Capturing one or more shots in this way will allow you to replace the blurry areas in post processing
In this image I used the exposure to save the trees from movement
Bonus Post Processing Tip: A general tip for post processing waterfall is to take the highlights down, usually I do the same but in camera Raw I balance this using white points. I capture the scene with multiple exposures in order to blend images, for example with trees as I described above or to darken or lighten properly the exposures using digital blending or luminosity masks
If you haven’t already download my free luminosity masks panel to make your workflow easier and start using it on your next waterfall shot
The beautiful colors of the Cilento cliffs are one of my favorite spots in this area. This year I have been several times here and every time I managed to capture great sunsets and as many beautiful colors. The mountains are not far from the sea here and this creates a beautiful atmosphere at sunset
When I took this photo in the evening the sea was very rough, I put my tripod on a rock sheltered from the high water and started shooting with the colors of the golden hour until almost complete darkness
Capturing the entire event allowed me to take the whole dynamic range of the scene. In particular the brightly colored sky is the result of the yellow colors of the sunset when it was to turn towards the blue, having more series of shots at my disposal it allowed me to protect the yellows by exploiting the beautiful purple colors of “evening”
At the same time the long exposure of the water was captured in another series of shots that I used on the main frame to edit
WORKFLOW EXPLANATION
For this shot I makes 2 different blends: one for a series captured during the golde hour and another with another exposure series captured during the blue hour, so with more darkness.
I selected the shot with the golden hour and I used the blue hour blend to make some adjustments in the main frame, so I used it to blend, water and some part of the sky that i want to replace with a more dark image
I added details and I increased yellow colours in the sky using a warm filter applied to luminosity masks. I used dodge and burn on the rocks to make some lights effect in the direction of the sun, I always used dodge and burn to soften som lights coming from the clouds. I added orton effect and I increased the contrast using TTS Pro that have this function applied to luminosity masks in order to create a series of curves easy to adjust
I fixed the finale exposure and I increased the shadows to mitigate the darkess coming from the foreground rocks
As final step I made some colours increase adjustments, pushing up the vibrance but reducing the blues becoming too strong
I hope you will find this usefull. I like to ear this from you!
Hi, my name is Giuseppe Sapori, a professional photographer and author of this website, created by yours truly to show my work and share with you the techniques I use. My expertise is in the field of Landscape Photography... (Read More)
This website uses cookies to improve your experience. We'll assume you're ok with this, but you can opt-out if you wish.AcceptRead More
Privacy & Cookies Policy
Privacy Overview
This website uses cookies to improve your experience while you navigate through the website. Out of these, the cookies that are categorized as necessary are stored on your browser as they are essential for the working of basic functionalities of the website. We also use third-party cookies that help us analyze and understand how you use this website. These cookies will be stored in your browser only with your consent. You also have the option to opt-out of these cookies. But opting out of some of these cookies may affect your browsing experience.
Necessary cookies are absolutely essential for the website to function properly. This category only includes cookies that ensures basic functionalities and security features of the website. These cookies do not store any personal information.
Any cookies that may not be particularly necessary for the website to function and is used specifically to collect user personal data via analytics, ads, other embedded contents are termed as non-necessary cookies. It is mandatory to procure user consent prior to running these cookies on your website.
