20131019-DSC_6289 I had been to Niagara Falls for one day in July of this year on an absolutely perfect day and got some really amazing shots of the Falls, including a double-rainbow panorama. So we decided to go back again for a long weekend and experience more of the Falls and the area. Unfortunately, when we went back this past weekend, it was cloudy and rainy. So I wanted to figure out how I could still get some shots and not have a complete washout. Using a slow shutter speed was the answer.

So I set my ISO on Low 1.0 (a full stop below ISO 100 on my Nikon D600), closed down my f-stop all the way to f/22 on my Nikon 28-300mm, put on my circular polarizing filter (the only filter I brought with me) and added an extra stop or two on exposure compensation. I then propped my camera on the stone uprights along the railing and shot views of the American Falls all the way over to above the Canadian Falls.

I didn’t get very many great shots for several reasons (I’m not listing them as excuses, but so anyone else can learn about the troubles I had):

1. I didn’t have a tripod and, try as I might, I still had to have my hand on the camera even while resting it on the stone; so some came out blurred
2. The mist from the falls would sometimes get on the filter and ruin the shot
3. The mist also threw the light all over the place and made it hard to get a slow shutter speed without blowing out everything
4. I really needed a full-stop ND filter to slow things down even more.

But I was able to get a few nice shots and this is my favorite. It was taken from just above the Falls on the Canadian side looking back to the upper Niagara river.

The settings: ISO 50 (aka Low 1.0), f/22, 1 sec, with a circular polarizer and a +1 Exposure Compensation.  In Lightroom 5.2, I dropped the Exposure by about 1.2 stops, increased the Contract a bit, opened the Highlights and the Shadows, closed down the Whites and Blacks, and increased the Clarity and Vibrance (phew!).