Thought a 6-stop ND filter was overkill until I shot waterfalls at Silver Falls

Bought a cheap 6-stop ND off eBay for 15 bucks. Total impulse buy. Thought it was just for people who wanted to blur everything into mush. Then I took it to Silver Falls State Park last month. That place has 10 waterfalls. Set up my Pentax 6x7 with some Fuji 400H. Without the filter, the water looked frozen. Solid ice blocks. With it, I got 30 second exposures. The water turned into this soft silky mist. Totally changed how those falls looked. Made the whole scene feel dreamy. Now I get why landscape guys carry three different ND strengths. Has anyone else had a filter change their mind about a whole type of photography?

2 comments

2 Comments

rosejackson19d ago

Tried a 10-stop on some coastal fog and realized slow shutter speeds are magic for making water look alive.

mary83619d agoMost Upvoted

Oh man, that sounds amazing. Was the fog thick enough that you didn't need a ton of extra stopping power, or were you shooting full noon light?