Ozone Falls.....Take Two

Tennessee Landscape · Mar 11, 2008

Okay guys and gals....I come home past Ozone Falls agian, and since I've been reading "Understanding Exposure" ( MUST READ ), I thought I'd take another stab at shooting the falls again.

If you would, please take some time to look and leave me some feedback.....criticize if you must. I don't care on what either.....if you don't like my composition, exposure, camera settings, etc....you get the point. The pics are here to be viewed of course, but I'm looking for areas to improve.....so if you can show me where, by all means, do so.

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By the way, while standing at all of my shooting locations I was so excited I was going to come home with a memory card full of great compositions.......

I didn't :grumpy:

Ajay · Mar 11, 2008

The last one is definitely the most interesting to me. The others are just lacking somehow - a little boring truthfully. Maybe trying a different time of day would help. The lighting in these seems kind of harsh.

Tennessee Landscape · Mar 11, 2008

This is what happened when I exposed for the water.....

for side by side....#3

AverageJoe · Mar 11, 2008

I feel like I should be camping when looking at these. What do the "bad" ones look like?

Tennessee Landscape · Mar 12, 2008

AverageJoe said:
I feel like I should be camping when looking at these. What do the "bad" ones look like?

very underexposed or super blown out........or too much foliage in composition

Harmony · Mar 13, 2008

More foliage might be beneficial.... the first 3 seem very bare to me.

Seefutlung · Mar 13, 2008

Your exposures are very good. You have details in the shadows and the highlights. The technical aspects can be inproved in Photoshop (or equal). Let's talk about #3, (your best composed shot), could use a pinch of additional contrast. Now this additional contrast will blow out the big rock which is on the edge of losing detail ... so you have to darken/burn in to compensate. I'd also use the Dodge Tool set on highlights and sweep the water to improve/increase the highlights and maybe over the Lichens on the smaller huge rock and on the trees (on the right) to selectively increase the contrast.

The problem with the composition is the lack of a strong center of interest. (One would think that a waterfall or two would be of sufficient interest to focus one eyes ... but the two huge rocks dominate the image.

All of your images look as if they were taken from a standing position ... not all that interesting ... try shooting up, down, wide, tight, low, high et cetera.

I would have shot #3 as low to the water as possible ... get a rock or floating leaf to dominate an edge of the frame, small aperature for maximum DOF ... then maybe a large aperture for a soft background.

Gary

PS- Remember when you burn or dodge to use a minimal setting and repeat many many times for best control and the most natural effect of these tools.
G

Black & White · Mar 13, 2008

Refreshing to see water fulls I like the colors of that water, its looks almost clear.

Tennessee Landscape · Mar 13, 2008

Seefutlung said:
Your exposures are very good. You have details in the shadows and the highlights. The technical aspects can be inproved in Photoshop (or equal). Let's talk about #3, (your best composed shot), could use a pinch of additional contrast. Now this additional contrast will blow out the big rock which is on the edge of losing detail ... so you have to darken/burn in to compensate. I'd also use the Dodge Tool set on highlights and sweep the water to improve/increase the highlights and maybe over the Lichens on the smaller huge rock and on the trees (on the right) to selectively increase the contrast.

The problem with the composition is the lack of a strong center of interest. (One would think that a waterfall or two would be of sufficient interest to focus one eyes ... but the two huge rocks dominate the image.

All of your images look as if they were taken from a standing position ... not all that interesting ... try shooting up, down, wide, tight, low, high et cetera.

I would have shot #3 as low to the water as possible ... get a rock or floating leaf to dominate an edge of the frame, small aperature for maximum DOF ... then maybe a large aperture for a soft background.

Gary

PS- Remember when you burn or dodge to use a minimal setting and repeat many many times for best control and the most natural effect of these tools.
G

Thank you for your feedback, it's likely the best input I've ever received on this forum. As far as the post processing, you're speaking greek to me. I've chosen to master exposure before jumping into P.P. as I've read no amount of P.P. will fix a bad exposure. Right now I'm looking at some P.P. software, but not yet ready to buy.

Thanks again, you're very helpful

Ann75 · Mar 13, 2008

I like these photos with great colors, good exposure and wonderful details. I do find that the water in the first 2 photos is just a little too bright, but it's not distracting. I think the compositions are fine with beautiful views. Great work and great to be able to see this on your route. :clap:

:thumbup: :thumbup:

Greetings,
Ann

Seefutlung · Mar 13, 2008

Tennessee Landscape said:
Thank you for your feedback, it's likely the best input I've ever received on this forum. As far as the post processing, you're speaking greek to me. I've chosen to master exposure before jumping into P.P. as I've read no amount of P.P. will fix a bad exposure. Right now I'm looking at some P.P. software, but not yet ready to buy.

Thanks again, you're very helpful

Photography is a never ending growing/learning process ... Thanks for accepting my remarks in the same manner as they were given ... many would have flamed me for not giving them an "atta-boy". :thumbup:

Gary

Tennessee Landscape · Mar 14, 2008

Seefutlung said:
Photography is a never ending growing/learning process ... Thanks for accepting my remarks in the same manner as they were given ... many would have flamed me for not giving them an "atta-boy". :thumbup:

Gary

Well, I'm only looking to get better at what I do. I want to learn all I can so that I will get better. Your input is just the type of input I was hoping to receive when I registered with this forum.

Thanks, Eric

*BTW*...the more I learn about photography, the more and more I see there is to learn......

Tennessee Landscape · Mar 14, 2008

Ann75 said:
I like these photos with great colors, good exposure and wonderful details. I do find that the water in the first 2 photos is just a little too bright, but it's not distracting. I think the compositions are fine with beautiful views. Great work and great to be able to see this on your route. :thumbup: :thumbup:

Greetings,
Ann

Thank you for the comments....yes, the water was hard to expose, but the rock wall behind the big waterfall was completely in the shade....exposing for the water meant getting a black hole behind the falls......very challenging, for me at least with my still elementry photograohy skills