Forest Falls

N

NedM

Guest
So lately I've been trying to shoot long exposures of waterfalls.
I know I still a lot of improvement but can anyone throw some suggestions/advice my way!
I'd appreciate it!
What can I do to capture a sharp, vibrant, beautiful long exposure of flowing water?

f/22
1.3 secs
ISO 100
focal length - 18mm

Kdzso0t.jpg
 
Last edited by a moderator:
The way i do it is shoot raw and process it further in lightroom. This a little tweaking i did to your image:

iRPx8Siu8IN9h.jpg



The picture you shot looks far more natural, people just enjoy vibrant colours.
 
The way i do it is shoot raw and process it further in lightroom. This a little tweaking i did to your image:

iRPx8Siu8IN9h.jpg



The picture you shot looks far more natural, people just enjoy vibrant colours.

Looks awesome!
Did you just adjust the vibrance slider?
 
Yes. I also sharpened and masked it, i bumped up the contrast, adjusted the temperature and colours. But it only looks nice because you shot a nice picture.
 
The white balance is way to blue. A big part of why the photo doesn't 'pop' is the poor quality of the light.

To me the edit has made the water even more blue, particularly the white water.

With a long exposure to make moving water blur and look smooth, it can't also be sharp.

The way the water is moving over the branch below the falls makes the water look like fog.

Two ACR sliders I use on almost all of the images I make are the Clarity and Vibrance sliders. (CS/CC Camera Raw and the LR Develop module are both ACR)
Clarity controls the mid-tone contrast, and Vibrance only adds Saturation to colors that are muted.

Note however, that ACR's Adjustment Brush (masking capability) cannot be used nearly as precisely as CS/CC's masking capabilities.

I did a quick and dirty edit using CC Camera Raw - I corrected the WB, adjusted the exposure of the shore, the water above the falls, the area behind the falls, the big rock at the falls, and the falls themselves. I added some Clarity and a touch of Vibrance.
Note the rocks in the upper left corner are now gray instead of blue. Also note that adding Clarity (boosting mid-tone contrast) has a sharpening effect.

Kdzso0tEditsRGB.jpg
 
Last edited:
The white balance is way to blue. A big part of why the photo doesn't 'pop' is the poor quality of the light.

To me the edit has made the water even more blue blue, particularly the white water.

With a long exposure to make moving water blur and look smooth, it can't also be sharp.

The way the water is moving over the branch below the falls makes the water look like fog.

Two ACR sliders I use on almost all of the images I make are the Clarity and Vibrance sliders. (CS/CC Camera Raw and the LR Develop module are both ACR)
Clarity controls the mid-tone contrast, and Vibrance only adds Saturation to colors that are muted.

Note however, that ACR's Adjustment Brush (masking capability) cannot be used nearly as precisely as CS/CC's masking capabilities.

I did a quick and dirty edit - I corrected the WB, adjusted the exposure of the shore, the water above the falls, the area behind the falls, the big rock at the falls, and the falls themselves. I added some Clarity and a touch of Vibrance.
Note the rocks in the upper left corner are now gray instead of blue. Also note that adding Clarity (boosting mid-tone contrast) has a sharpening effect.

Kdzso0tEditsRGB.jpg

Nice edit. I agree that one of the biggest issues with this photo is that it lacks contrasty/punchy lighting. It looks like it's in the middle of a dense forest on a could day--and as a result, this diffuse dull lighting results in a dull photo.

Best,
Jake
 

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