waterfall

[ldenne]

I found this waterfall while we were driving down a back country road - it is now behind someones house (asked permission to shot and he let me ) would like critque on technique of shot.

[Gulf Coast Girl]

Hmmmm..... I like the falls and the trees in the background..... but I don't care for the bushes IN the river. Of course if you ditch them with a crop then you lose the trees in the background. I think I'd do it anyway as the subject is the water fall.... not the trees.

Also, what post processing steps did you do? It looks a little over processed IMO. The water is almost blown out which means you lost the detail of the falls.

Looks like a very nice location

[ldenne]

i have been using a lightroom trial - trying to figure it out the fall seemed to blur when i adjusted it maybe a lighter hand so to speak would be better. There is alot of greenery in the water which was weird cause the water was up this year. will try adjusting it and add the pic when done thanks for the input

[ldenne]

here is the original along with a cropped version and a redone version of what i originally posted with more of a lighter hand

original



cropped version to focus more on the water and less on the greenery in the water



re-redone of what i originally posted

[Gulf Coast Girl]

The water looks much better in the original. I also like the crop you did on the second picture, definitely an improvement.

[navcom]

It looks like the water in your initial posted picture is quite overexposed, to the point where there is no detail left in the water. The original you posted shows the water exposed much better but the background is underexposed. This is not an uncommon phenomena when shooting water rapids, especially in the middle of the day when the light is very harsh (it looks like it was the middle of the day but I'm not positive).

This is simply a high dynamic range situation which is a limitation of all cameras...too much dynamic range to record. You can combat it by either using a graduated neutral density filter (which might or might not work in this situation) or combine several bracketed shots to increase the range in post.

I might also recommend coming back very early or late in the day when the sun is very low on the horizon. This will yield much more pleasing light and will help with the dynamic range as well as the aesthetics.

Composition-wise, it is a bit boring as it seems to be just a picture of a water fall without much to lead the eye around. Not that it has to be super-compelling...just an observation. Waterfalls are tough to nail a good composition. The best way to to concentrate on leading lines and curves in the composition and use them to lead the viewer around. Also, most of the time less is more. The busier the image (the more you try to fit in), the more confusing it can become and the less interest it will hold.

Hope that helps!

[Tito87]

[QUOTE=Gulf Coast Girl; I don't care for the bushes IN the river. Of course if you ditch them with a crop then you lose the trees in the background. I think I'd do it anyway as the subject is the water fall.... not the trees.[/QUOTE]
You don't need to crop to lose the bushes. It would take time and patience, but you can clone them out.

[ldenne]

Originally Posted by Tito87

You don't need to crop to lose the bushes. It would take time and patience, but you can clone them out.

can you clone them out using lightroom or is there another program that would be better - i haven't had much luck with the clone in lightroom

[Tito87]

Originally Posted by ldenne

can you clone them out using lightroom or is there another program that would be better - i haven't had much luck with the clone in lightroom

I don't know about lightroom because I've never used it, but it can be done in Photoshop. In Photoshop you also have the convenience of content-aware fill, which will save you a lot of time; it greatly reduces the amount of time you have to spend cloning things out. You should try the 30-day-free trial. You'll be amazed when you see content-aware fill at work.

[ldenne]

Originally Posted by Tito87

I don't know about lightroom because I've never used it, but it can be done in Photoshop. In Photoshop you also have the convenience of content-aware fill, which will save you a lot of time; it greatly reduces the amount of time you have to spend cloning things out. You should try the 30-day-free trial. You'll be amazed when you see content-aware fill at work.

Thanks I am going to try it when my lightroom trial is over - i am trying to decide what software to get - glad that they offer trials helps to really see what you can do with them