Jamie Hale/The Oregonian

Fall foliage frames South Falls at Silver Falls State Park.

Beautiful photos of waterfalls have become ubiquitous in recent years. Although getting a good photo of a cascading falls isn't overly complicated, a lot of work can go into the process.



Here in the Willamette Valley, we're fortunate to have a veritable waterfall wonderland at Silver Falls State Park. It can get crowded on sunny weekend afternoons (it was one of the most popular state parks in 2018 after all), but if you stop by on a weekday you'll have a lot more room to shoot.



It's easy to focus on one or two of the most spectacular waterfalls in the park, but I like to hike the entire Trail of Ten Falls to get a wide variety. Though Silver Falls is full of gorgeous waterfalls, each one comes with its own unique features and challenges.



READ MORE: How to photograph the ghost forest on the Oregon coast

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Jamie Hale/The Oregonian

Yellow maple leaves frame Lower North Falls.

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PLANNING

My first shoot at Silver Falls came in the fall of 2017, when my goal was to frame the waterfalls with yellow and orange foliage. At the beginning of October, I started searching Instagram regularly, checking on the foliage through recent photos posted from the park. I drove down there two weeks later, timing the trip for the early afternoon, figuring the light would be best mid-day.



In retrospect, I could have checked SunCalc (an online tool that shows the movement of the sun for any position on a map) which would have given me a lot more information about the lighting. I would have known, for instance, that the sun never really illuminates the north-facing South Falls that time of year, but does light the south-facing North Falls.



The sun is one of the most important things to consider when shooting a waterfall. If the light is coming from behind the top of the falls, it will throw the whole cascade into darkness. And even if the sun lights up a waterfall, shadows cast by cliffs or trees can get in the way.



Because of that, I returned to Silver Falls for a second shoot on an overcast day in May. The spring clouds created a much more even light that made it easier to shoot the waterfalls, though they robbed the photos of the stark contrast from fall. Whether you chase the light or stick with clouds depends entirely on what kind of photos you want.

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Jamie Hale/The Oregonian

Lower South Falls, taken up close using the railing as foreground.

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Jamie Hale/The Oregonian

Lower South Falls, taken with a long exposure under overcast skies in spring.

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THE SHOOT

For both my fall and spring shoots, I hiked much the Trail of Ten Falls to get a look at all the waterfalls in the park. The 7.2-mile loop hike is mostly flat along the creeks, with stairs and hills leading down into and back up out of it. I packed a tripod and a lunch in my backpack, and planned to spend the better part of the day in the park.



On the fall trip, I started at South Falls, winding my way along the Canyon Trail getting photos of all the smaller waterfalls on the side of the trail. For each one, I tried to find a vantage point that framed the waterfall with colorful foliage, alternating between handheld shots and tripod-assisted long exposures.



Long-exposure photographs create that smooth, glassy effect on moving water, and are a popular way to shoot waterfalls. If you're not sure about using manual settings, here's a good basic rule of thumb: lower the ISO, raise the aperture, and try to get your shutter speed as slow as possible. For the photo of Lower South Falls above, I wound up with a shutter speed of 1/4 seconds.



The effect is nice, but because of its popularity on social media, it can feel a little overdone. I also like waterfall photos taken with faster shutter speeds – especially if you have enough light to catch individual droplets of water.



The other thing to consider is composition. In most cases (but certainly not all) the waterfall is going to be the subject of the picture. Aside from framing the waterfall through trees, you can try to include some elements in the foreground. If you're at creek level, for example, you can use rocks or fallen logs to fill the frame. Putting people in the picture can be a nice touch, too, especially if they can provide a sense of scale for bigger falls.

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Jamie Hale/The Oregonian

A hiker passes behind North Falls.

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Jamie Hale/The Oregonian

The unedited photo of South Falls in autumn.

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EDITING

One of my favorite photos from the two shoots was among the first I took: a view through the mossy autumn trees at South Falls. Since the sun was behind the waterfall, it illuminated the yellow leaves beautifully and provided some nice contrast on the tree trunks. But, as I said before, that meant the waterfall itself was in shadow, making the editing process a little tricky.



The image above is what it looked like straight out the camera. Once again, I used Photoshop to edit, first cropping in from every side just a little bit. I didn't need to adjust the levels much, so I skipped that step and just adjusted the curves a tiny bit for added contrast.



I used the shadows/highlights tool next – but only to bring down the bright highlights in the leaves. I liked the shadows on everything but the waterfall, so I left that alone for the time being. Next, I used the hue/saturation and color balance tools to bring back some of the orange that I saw in the leaves when I took the picture, then added a boost of contrast with the brightness/contrast tool.



That left just the shadowy waterfall. The HDR technique is the most popular way to tackle this issue, but as a photojournalist I have to eschew multiple exposures in favor of simple dark-room tools. In this case that meant dodging – lots of dodging. I usually like to go light with the dodge tool, but this time I went heavy-handed to really bring out the water. It might be a bit unnatural, but in this case I really like how it turned out.



You can see screenshots of the editing process below.

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Making very minor adjustments with the curves tool.

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Using the shadows/highlights tool to dial back the highlights, while leaving the shadows alone.

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Jamie Hale/The Oregonian

Using the color balance tool to bring out more of the orange color in the leaves.

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Jamie Hale/The Oregonian

In the middle of doing some heavy-handed dodging to bring out the waterfall.

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--Jamie Hale | jhale@oregonian.com | @HaleJamesB



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