overexposed waterfall shot

[JMarro]

Hello Everyone,

Took this shot last weekend and just need some advice about the post production. Is the overexposed sky and trees on the top left of the photo too distracting and if it is how would you go about changing it? (Clone stamp... ? etc.) Also is there any other aspect that needs to be fixed from a post production standpoint?

Thanks,
JMarro


Nikon D90
Nikon 18-105mm VR
Focal Length: 18mm
Aperture: f/16
Shutter Speed: 1/3 sec.
ISO 200

Click Image For Larger View on Flickr!!


Edited:

[olgabe]

Originally Posted by JMarro

Hello Everyone,

Took this shot last weekend and just need some advice about the post production. Is the overexposed sky and trees on the top left of the photo too distracting and if it is how would you go about changing it? (Clone stamp... ? etc.) Also is there any other aspect that needs to be fixed from a post production standpoint?

Thanks,
JMarro


Nikon D90
Nikon 18-105mm VR
Focal Length: 18mm
Aperture: f/16
Shutter Speed: 1/3 sec.
ISO 200

Click Image For Larger View on Flickr!!

I think this shot would benefit from either true HDR or pseudo HDR (bracketing at +/- 2 stops on a tripod and using sky from underexposed/rock in the bottom right corner from overexposed) in the final version. I'm not sure it's possible to get a stuning result with this lighting by taking one frame only.

[fletch]

Rather than looking at this as a exposure issue try looking at it as a compositional issue. How could you compose this shot to make it more interesting and avoid the extreems of light and dark. The bottom right is a underexposed as the top left is over exposed. If you find that better composition utilising some of the rules of landscapes such as foreground interest and leading lines and you still can't expose correctly they try mutiple exposure methods such as HDR.

[kencaleno]

Expose for the shadows....

[san_at_cliff]

Any reason why this was shot from the side and not from the front ? Would have been a dramatic effect. Sky in the top left corner does look distracting a bit.

[JMarro]

thanks for the comments, haven't really worked on the picture yet but will do so soon.
The highlights are too blown out to do an artificial hdr but im going to go into lightroom and lighten up the right side a bit... might replace the sky with some more trees.

@ San_at_cliff... there was a resting point right in front of the waterfall. I found it a little clique and overdone so i trekked through the water and woods to find another spot... I had also hoped to get behind the waterfall but was unsuccessful.

[JMarro]

Sorry for the bump, but just wanted to get some opinions on the edited version of the photo which i placed in the first post?

What I did using photoshop:
Replaced the overexposed trees and sky with trees from another picture. Brightened up the underexposed areas a bit. Lastly used a few levels layers on the image.

Thanks,
JMarro

[HowardG]

Originally Posted by olgabe

I think this shot would benefit from either true HDR or pseudo HDR (bracketing at +/- 2 stops on a tripod and using sky from underexposed/rock in the bottom right corner from overexposed) in the final version. I'm not sure it's possible to get a stuning result with this lighting by taking one frame only.

You need more exposure on the right where it is too dark.. Bring up a hint of the foliage under the falls. It is a lovely picture.