How to Get This Shot – Waterfall in Iceland

Iceland has exceptional photo opportunities throughout this small country, but it waterfalls are perhaps its biggest attraction. There are quite literally thousands of them, in all shapes, sizes, and magnitude.

If you’re headed to Iceland on a photo trip, read up on how to come home with stunning images of this iconic piece of Iceland!

Getting in Front of Waterfalls

This is no doubt the easiest part of photographing waterfalls in Iceland! You will encounter them in just about every region you visit and they each hold their own photogenic properties. This one in particular, Godafoss, is renowned for being easily accessible and giving you the opportunity for glorious slow-shutter photography, which creates that ethereal, wispy look.

Have the Right Gear

While a tripod isn’t essential to photograph all of Iceland’s waterfalls, as you generally have ample daylight and open skies, a tripod is essential if you want to take slow-shutter photography to render that silky look. You may be able to go hand held with newer cameras at 1/4^th of a second and similar, but to shoot at one full second or even slower, a tripod is a must.

The type of lens you use really depends on the waterfall you’re photographing. For this one in particular, to shoot it at this lower-eye-level, a medium telephoto is my go-to. Something in the range of 50 to 200mm is ideal (I was using both my 24-105mm and 70-200mm to get in close and frame as needed). However, as you’ll quickly see during your time in Iceland, other waterfalls benefit from a wide angle or ultra-wide.

Framing the Shot

I find that my favorite waterfall photos feature a combination of flowing water and static rock. While the water is no doubt the attraction and highlight, the non-moving rock (hopefully covered with some green vegetation, giving some color and additional texture) is a key of the photo.

The non-moving parts of the scene are especially important when aiming for the silky effect, as you need something static to balance out the movement.

This balance of sharpness and blur is what we’re going for. You can see from the below what an alternate fast-shutter photo would look like–without the silky water effect. Still nice, but not the same.

Camera Settings

I typically shoot on manual mode plus auto ISO, which allows me to dial in my aperture and shutter speed, but gives the camera the ability to ‘choose’ ISO to give me an even exposure. However, you can easily shoot on ‘shutter speed priority’ and get a similar effect. Aperture, to be frank, isn’t all that important here…something moderate like f/8 is just fine.

However, this is where you’ll need to balance the ambient light with how long you want your shutter speed to be. Let me explain.

Because most moving water looks best when shot between one second and 1/20^th of a second, you are inherently letting in a lot of light to your camera’s sensor. As a result, we often must dial in a big f/number to balance that out. It’s not uncommon to use f/22 to restrict light in these scenarios.

Pro tip: I highly recommend investing in a Neutral Density filter (aka ND filter) prior to your trip, as there could be times when the ambient light is just too strong. Even at f/22 and ISO 100 you still have too much light during a daytime one second exposure.

2-Second Timer

With long exposure photography, you want to minimize any camera movement when taking the shot. Even the slight movement from pressing the shutter button can add unwanted movement into the scene, thus blurring your entire shot–not just the water. Not what we want.

You could use a remote shutter button (e.g., bluetooth remote), but if you wish to go minimal or just don’t have one, the 2-second timer works just fine. This way, when you press the shutter there is a 2-second delay before the photo is taken, giving the camera enough time to ‘settle’ on the tripod.

Where to Focus

Generally for these types of shots you want everything in focus—at least all parts of the waterfall (maybe the distant background is blurred, and that’s ok). Thus, I tend to go for ‘hyperfocus’ by choosing something about 1/3 of the way into the scene. Mix this with a deep depth of field aperture setting and you are able to get everything in crisp focus.

For me, it helps to focus on a rock and switch to manual focus (without moving from my position) so that I can frame and compose my shot and have focus locked in. That is, you don’t have to try and re-focus for every shot you take afterwards—even if you try out different compositions. However, if you move closer or further from the waterfall, or use zoom, you will likely have to re-focus before proceeding.

Experiment with Different Shutters and Compositions

Once you have gone through the above steps, it’s worth it to try various shutter speeds to get different levels of ‘silkiness’ in your ensuing photos. How silky the waterfall looks is entirely a factor of the flow rate of the water, so there is no ‘perfect’ shutter speed I can advise on. Part of this is your artistic vision and preference, and part of it is how much water flow there is on a given day.

My recommendation is to try several different shots at 1/20^th, 1/10^th, 1/4^th, 1/2, and 1 second exposures. If you find that one of these is ideal for your vision, then try different compositions at that ‘choice’ shutter speed.

Try wider shots, tigher shots, and different angles. Also, don’t forget about vertical/portrait orientation as an option, too!

In Summary

If you are headed to Iceland on an all encompassing nature journey, you will not only have the chance to photograph this waterfall, but many, many waterfalls—all with incredible beauty and photo potential. Be ready with a tripod, your camera settings, and creative eye to capture one of my favorite parts of Iceland and come home with wall-worthy photos!

Go forward and give it a shot,

Court