Some of my Waterscapes

DragonMoon · Aug 11, 2008

Kent Falls, Kent, CT:

Spruce Brook Falls, Beacon Hill, CT:

These were all shot with a tripod, remote shutter release, and circular polarizer. I can certainly provide exif info if needed when I get home from work! C&C welcome!

icassell · Aug 11, 2008

Very nice! I like the way the image catches Kent Falls hitting the pool below in a star-shape.

I have been to Kent Falls many times when I was a kid (I grew up in SW CT). Used to backpack on the A.T. near there.

DragonMoon · Aug 11, 2008

icassell said:
Very nice! I like the way the image catches Kent Falls hitting the pool below in a star-shape.

I have been to Kent Falls many times when I was a kid (I grew up in SW CT). Used to backpack on the A.T. near there.

Kent Falls is very nice for pictures when the water is at the right level and just out of season (before Memorial Day and after Labor Day) so you don't have to shoot around people. You also don't have to worry about getting yelled at for climbing off the trail to get the good angles!

Gphoto · Aug 11, 2008

Awesome shot!! :drool:

demain · Aug 11, 2008

Wow! Great shots...some of the best moving water photos Ive seen in a while.

STICKMAN · Aug 11, 2008

These shots are great, love that effect with water. Also like how much the greens pop really brings some life to the woods...

Great Work:thumbup:

DragonMoon · Aug 11, 2008

Thanks for the comments! I really gotta get my butt in gear and start walking in the woods again to get shots like this!

Mersad · Aug 11, 2008

Lovely photos. I like them quite much!

Lyncca · Aug 11, 2008

These are all beautiful shots! I wish we had water here. LOL

DragonMoon · Aug 11, 2008

One thing I just thought of is that shooting waterfalls has to be one of the funniest things to watch someone do. The photographer sometimes has to twist his/herself into a pretzel and get into some of the most compromising positions to get shots. For example, on the second I was straddling part of the water standing on two rocks with the tripod as low as possible sitting in the water. My butt almost got wet that day!

MarcusM · Aug 11, 2008

These are really great shots. The lighting and exposure is absolutely perfect. The pattern of the water in the 3rd shot is really nice.

Is there much PP work on these? Also, what camera/lens did you use? These look like they might be HDR, since you managed to get so much detail in the shadow without any blown highlights...but really good, natural-looking HDRs at that!

DragonMoon · Aug 12, 2008

MarcusM said:
These are really great shots. The lighting and exposure is absolutely perfect. The pattern of the water in the 3rd shot is really nice.

Is there much PP work on these? Also, what camera/lens did you use? These look like they might be HDR, since you managed to get so much detail in the shadow without any blown highlights...but really good, natural-looking HDRs at that!

Thanks!

There really isn't much PP work at all on these (just some levels, curves, and sharpening). I will post up the exif info after I get out of work, but all three were taken with a tripod mounted (w/ remote shutter release) Canon 20D and Canon EF-S 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6 with circular polarizer. These were single exposure RAW's, not HDR's. The first picture, being the newest, was taken almost a year ago. These were done before the whole HDR thing caught on. To be honest, I haven't had that much good experience doing HDR's of waterfalls. This was my one and only semi-decent attempt at doing an HDR with water:

This is the bottom part of Kent Falls.

From what I've found, the best way to get good exposure on waterfalls to give as much tonal range as possible and also allow the use of longer shutter speeds without the need of neutral density filters is to shoot on an overcast day or in the shade. All of these were shaded for the most part.