Water Fall

ShutteredEye · Aug 13, 2005

Series of waterfalls at the entrance to Texas Wild exhibit at the Ft. Worth Zoo.

Chiller · Aug 14, 2005

Wow...awesome shot. Nice work on this one. :thumbup: :thumbup:

aprilraven · Aug 14, 2005

beautiful shot...very calming, relaxing...would love to dangle my toes there...

i dont see any way to improve on it...great great shot...

ShutteredEye · Aug 14, 2005

Thanks you two!

I set the shutter speed at 1/30. Do you think there is enough blur in the water? I didn't have my tripod with me, so I didn't really dare to go much slower, for fear of my unsteady hands. LOL!

JonMikal · Aug 14, 2005

i like the composition, but the foreground water is blown way out.

ShutteredEye · Aug 14, 2005

JonMikal said:
i like the composition, but the foreground water is blown way out.

How to control this?

Should I have metered for the foreground? Or crop it out all together?

Dave_D · Aug 14, 2005

In this situation, it is always good to take a few shots. People in general, like to be conservative and not take too many shots of one subject. This is true especially on trips like the zoo as you want to make sure you have enough film or memory and not run out. In this case, you would want to take a few shots bracketing as you go. I have at times gone through entire rolls on one scene changing settings and filtering. A neutral density filter is a nice tool to have for these settings as they allow you to use slower shutter settings in bright light. In most of these settings a tripod ( as you mentioned ) is a must. A monopod is not perfect, but better then just a hand hold. This image is a perfect candidate for PS to obtain the look you were going for. OTE?

ShutteredEye · Aug 15, 2005

Dave_D said:
In this situation, it is always good to take a few shots. People in general, like to be conservative and not take too many shots of one subject. This is true especially on trips like the zoo as you want to make sure you have enough film or memory and not run out. In this case, you would want to take a few shots bracketing as you go. I have at times gone through entire rolls on one scene changing settings and filtering. A neutral density filter is a nice tool to have for these settings as they allow you to use slower shutter settings in bright light. In most of these settings a tripod ( as you mentioned ) is a must. A monopod is not perfect, but better then just a hand hold. This image is a perfect candidate for PS to obtain the look you were going for. OTE?

For sure, show me what you've got.

Dave_D · Aug 15, 2005

Smudged, exposure adjusted a tad and a bit of diffuse glow. Did I over do it? It's really easy for me to get carried away in PS.

dalebe · Aug 15, 2005

nice shot! i like the original, but i like the effect of water movement, great colours and composition.

ShutteredEye · Aug 15, 2005

Cool! I like it.

How did you delineate between the water and not water to smudge and diffuse it?

Lensmeister · Aug 15, 2005

I love the original best but the edited version is good too ....

tranquil mood picture ...

Dave_D · Aug 15, 2005

I love all of these "I like the original best" diehards. It is a subject I also have a hard time with myself. I like the challenge of being able to achieve the results I want through straight photographic skill and not digital alteration. On the flip side of that, adding filters or using high sat film types or what have you is in itself an alteration so, the result is the same: an altered picture. With that in mind it shouldn't be hard to accept a digitally altered image the same way a photographically altered image is accepted, but it is not so. A digi picture seems to have as much credibility for authentic as Pamela Andersons boobs and digi cameras are looked at the same way by many. I still have my on and off again reservations with the whole digital thing, but I am getting better.

I'll get off my tangent now and answer your original questions. And yes isn't it ironic that I have those feelings while having been a Photoshop instructor for a time......Anyways. The smudge tool is a locally applied tool meaning that it only affects the area you move it over while depressing your mouse or pen button. The diffuse glow affects an entire selection. I drew around only the area I wanted to be affected by the diffuse glow and adjusted the settings of that selection only. All in separate layers as I go of course. I didn't get involved too much in the details as the image size was kinda small, but that was it for what you see in a nut shell. Oh yeah, and the exposure adjustment.

JTHphoto · Aug 17, 2005

i love the "flow" of this photo, nice composition. I think its a great shot given your circumstances (not having a tripod). I like Dave D's edit from PS too, i'm amazed at what the people on this forum can do with that program, i'm learning a lot. I typically only use the clone stamp to remove distracting elements from the photos, which kind of seems like cheating, but it's still fun. I have recently experimented with other tools and am impressed with how dramatically I can improve some of my mediocre photos.

Onyx · Aug 18, 2005

you could also get a similar effect by using the "motion blur" tool. in this picture you would have to do the waterfall in sections to get the blur to follow the path of the water. then most likey you would have to erase or mask out the areas the water wouldnt go. it would keep more detail but might not be as fun as smudging the heck out of it. heres an example of what it might look like: