How slow should the shutter speed be for that silky-smooth look?
It varies with each waterfall, mostly on the flow of water. And it’s also a matter of personal preference. In general, smaller waterfalls with low flow will look best with very long shutter speeds, say around 1 sec. or longer, while very large waterfalls look best when the water is “frozen” in motion with a very short shutter speed of 1/250th sec. or thereabouts. For example, the picture in the website logo had a shutter speed of 0.8 seconds. The picture to the right as seen on the home page had a shutter speed of 4.5 seconds. Also keep in mind that any trees or other foliage in the picture will also blur with longer shutter speeds if it is windy. Here is a recent case study. This is a series of photos I took of Elk Falls, also known as Big Falls, along the TN/NC border. The only difference in the pictures is the shutter speed. (ok, I changed the film speed setting up to ISO-400 to get a faster shutter speed at the high end). These aren’t great photos but they do illustrate the benefit
