Question on silky waterfalls

rajiv.vindaloo

Hi everyone, first post here. I have a D200 and a Tok 12-24, planning to go to Maui and wanted to get some pointers. I want to take photos of waterfalls and in my understanding the two ways to achieve the silky effect is
1. Use ND & Polarizing filters
2. Take pic at dawn/dusk to enable longer shutter.

Anything I missed?
Thanks
RV

Art Scott

I would be more apt to go with the ND filters for sure....but taking the shots during sweet light is also very enticing.......
Only use the pola if there is actually glare to deal with...........and keep the amount of filters to a minimum as that will
degrade the image some what........anything over the lens does....it just is not noticeable most of the time or only noticeable
at great magnification,

Blackwood

Be prepared to wait. Maui is windy, and trees will be moving quite a bit.

The ND is nice due to flexibility.

pathfinder

Welcome to dgrin.

Many people use both a circular polarizing filter, and a neutral density filter when shooting waterfalls to achieve the long shutter speeds needed - say 0.5 to 5 or more seconds.

Be aware that extreme wide angle lenses frequently vignette significantly with screw filters or may not even permit screw in filters

Regarding time of day, river flows are at the lowest points around usually, and hence many waterfalls are in the shade until mid day or so. Along coastal regions or mountain water falls this may not be an issue, but here in the midwest it is something that is always an issue.

craig_d

pathfinder wrote: »

Be aware that extreme wide angle lenses frequently vignette significantly with screw filters or may not even permit screw in filters.

The Tokina 12-24mm f/4 does allow screw-in filters. There may be vignetting at the wide end, especially if filters are stacked.

For a use like this, I'd be inclined to buy the strongest ND filter I could find and shoot at the lowest ISO available. If necessary, I'd stop down too. I haven't used the D200, but from its specs I would guess that f/11 is about as far as you could safely go without losing sharpness due to diffraction.

rajiv.vindaloo

Thanks
Thanks everyone for the replies. Will go out and practice before my trip. Also any particular brand of ND filters you suggest.

craig_d

Hoya Multi-Coated NDs are good. Whatever you get, make sure it's multi-coated to reduce ghosting.