Photoshop Waterfall Tricks

On this quick video tip photographer Steve Perry (from backcountrygallery) looks two simple Photoshop techniques for improving your waterfalls images.

The first tips is very simple – use a tripod to do a two exposures of the waterfall – the first should exposure for the water and the second for the area. In Photoshop all you need to do is put the surrounding area exposed image on top of the waterfall one and add a mask. Now with a brush (not a 100% one) paint the waterfall so that it will be properly exposed – and that is it!

The second tip also deals with a similar technique but for a different use. Lets say that you want the plants in the background to be sharp (fast shutter) and the water in the waterfall to be smooth (slow shutter) – what you need to do – like in the previous case is combine the two images – simple but useful – just remember to do this on a tripod in the field and make both images at the same exposure and composition.

You can find more info on shooting and editing waterfalls shots in Perry’s special blog post.

We have looked at shooting waterfalls several times in the past including Photographing Waterfalls with photographer Sarah Howard and Tips for Shooting Waterfalls with photographer Tony Northrup (both focus on shooting tips and not post processing waterfalls like Perry’s video).

You can check out many more helpful photography tips on our Photography tips section here on LensVid. We have a special page dedicated to Perry ‘s videos which you can find here.
Iddo Genuth
Iddo Genuth is the founder and chief editor of LensVid.com. He has been a technology reporter working for international publications since the late 1990's and covering photography since 2009. Iddo is also a co-founder of a production company specializing in commercial food and product visual content.

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