Waterfall

[Alexandra Hall]

Camera Nikon D3000
Exposure 2
Aperture f/22.0
Focal Length 30 mm
ISO Speed 100
Exposure Bias 0 EV
Flash No Flash

Next time, how can I make sure the water isn't so blown out. Also, do you think this shot is suitable for a competition under intermediate. And what might I be able to do post processing to make it better?

[EOBeav]

Once you've got blown spots, it's tough to get it right. I don't think I would enter this one, just because of the amount that is overexposed.

Some of the better waterfalls pictures I see use a couple of different exposures, one of the water, and one for the ground around it, then blended in photoshop or similar.

Also, if you bring your aperture down to between f/11 and f/16, you should be able to get a decent half second or so, instead of 2 full seconds, which might help you with the blown areas. Just an idea.

Edit: Oh, and a circular polarizer, too. They're a must for this kind of thing. Just screw it on, and rotate it until you get the contrast you're looking for. However, that will bump you exposure time up a little.

[Corey Thompson]

Another option to fix the blown spots while dragging the shutter for several seconds would be to use an ND filter to stop down the exposure.

[Alexandra Hall]

Originally Posted by EOBeav

Some of the better waterfalls pictures I see use a couple of different exposures, one of the water, and one for the ground around it, then blended in photoshop or similar.

Can this be done in lightroom?

And thanks for the responses!!

[benchdog]

[QUOTE=Alexandra Hall;1297291]Can this be done in lightroom?
/QUOTE]

I'm not a lightroom expect but do use lightroom and no I don't believe this can be done in lightroom. You will need to use Photoshop or another simular program

[Doug Sundseth]

For this photo, I assume that you've pushed Highlight Recovery as hard as you can and possibly have also reduced the exposure to pull back the highlights and get detail in the water. (If you haven't, do that now. )

The problem here, as with many landscape photos, is dynamic range. The water is very bright and the banks are much darker. If you expose for the water, the banks will lose detail. If you expose for the banks, the water will blow out.

If you're trying for a single exposure rather than for exposure blending, you'll need to take your picture when the light is dimmer (cloudy or near dawn or dusk) to limit the total range of brightness in the photo.

If you can control your light, I think you can have a very nice photo here. The subject is pleasing and the composition works well.

[navcom]

There isn't much you can do in post. The pixels are blown out and thus are gone...nothing to recover.

I like your shutter speed...the water flow looks nice. But you do have a dynamic range issue. This is a good candidate for HDR/bracketing. While it is desirable to have white water, you are a bit overexposed.

If you are using Lightroom, you can't use it for layering. You will need Photoshop for that. However, if you can go back and retake the shot, try lowering the exposure just enough to get white highlights on the water caps. Then increase the fill just a bit using Lightroom. You don't need to see every detail in the shadows (contrast is good) but you should be able to pull out a bit with Lightroom....not too much or you will start having pixelizing/quality issues and the shot will look unnatural.

Hope that helps!