Waterfall C&C

[Noxire]

My first take at long-exposed waterfalls (prolly because they're not common in sweden )
I'm pretty content with how they turned out, but i would like to hear a 2:d opinion, and some valuable how-to advice for improvements.

1.

2.

3.

Im not crazy happy with 3. though

edit: changed crazy misaligned 2

 

[tirediron]

Comments I gots lots of, valuable advice, I'll let you decide...

This is a really nice scene, but there are a couple of areas which I think could be improved if you could go back for a re-shoot. First, is the exposure. My guess is that you were there at the wrong time of day; you've got blown highlights and deep shadow. There are a couple of ways you can deal with this, first, as mentioned is to try a time of day when the light is more even (Normally early in the morning, but often with streams like this they are in canyons and "high noon" may be a better time), or you can try shooting several images at different exposures and creating an HDR image; this may or may not work too well if there are changes in the flow patterns.

I would also like to see you open up your composition a little. #1 is IMO, the strongest of the three images, but the fact that you've cut so much of the water image right off, bothers me. Try composing the image as you like it, then zooming out a little.

Just my $00.02 worth - your mileage may vary.

~John​

 

[DanFinePhotography]

I personally love waterfall pics. These are very good , myself i think #2 is good #3 might tend to be a tad artificial and #1 has been blown out pretty bad. Keep trying and as the advice above states try for some better time of day when the lighting is better

 

[Rosshole]

These seem over exposed and oversaturated... what were your camera settings? How much PP did you?

 

[PerfectlyFlawed]

The falls themselves are gorgeous... and you did a good job capturing the milky effects. But i agree with others, as your saturation is overdone...and your pictures seem underexposed in some, and blow out in other areas.
Id say 2 is your best.

 

[timlair]

I think 3 is the best. Yes i know, im different. May i ask how long your shutter speeds were and your f/?

 

[Petraio Prime]

If you really must do this sort of thing, it's best to focus on only a small section at a time.

The brightness range is likely to be lower, allowing better tonal values in the result.

 

[misstwinklytoes]

I think the contrast is bumped pretty high. Can we see the originals?

 

[Nod]

From the reflections, it looks like the sun was behind you, if possible, try this shot at noon with either a polarizer or neutral density filter. It would help highlight the rocks and trees. Or better yet, on a cloudy day. This is a nice scene as has a lot of potential.

 

[Noxire]

Thanks John, and yes thats valuable advice.

I had both polarizer and ND although it was in the middle of the day so that may be the cause of the blown highlights, the saturation on the other hand was pp in 2&3 and well i guess i liked how that turned out <.<, while i think i left 1 untouched 1 is also abit overexposed over all I did it on purpose i had to get longer shutter to "soften" the water.

The composition however... well i couldn't capture the whole fall on some images prime 50mm lense, although i couldve used kitlense (18-55mm) i didnt cause i hate it ^^ So i tried at best to pick out parts of the waterfall.

original of 1

And yes its contrasted and pp in lightroom liek hell but i thought the original looked so dull tbh. i guess im kinda of a pp-guy

 

[Noxire]

and here is pp-eased-up version far better or far worse?

 

[misstwinklytoes]

I think it's much better.

 

[misstwinklytoes]

I just looked at it in Paint shop pro. It might help to use the unsharp mask and I actually think cropping that top blown out fall might add to the picture rather than taking it away.

 

[Sachphotography]

#1
How to Take Pictures of Moving Water | eHow.com

#2

It looks as if you are shooting at the wrong f/stop. I usually shoot at about f/16 or so. By doing this you will sharpen up the pictures a ton by widening your focus range. I would shoot at as low an ISO as possible and let the Shutter speed fill in the frame. I shoot about 4 seconds usually. Of course it all depends on the area. When it comes to shooting nature. You want it to looks real unless you are going for a strange look or some artsy feel. What ever floats your boat. But 99% of the time you want it to look like what it looks like in person. I try to do as little PP as possible. I hate my pictures looking fake and like I spent 4 hours fixing them. Keep on keeping on.......the best thing you can do is keep practicing. The more you shot the better you will get.

In my eyes composition wise... #3 is the best

Cheers

 

[Noxire]

It looks as if you are shooting at the wrong f/stop. I usually shoot at about f/16 or so. By doing this you will sharpen up the pictures a ton by widening your focus range. I would shoot at as low an ISO as possible and let the Shutter speed fill in the frame. I shoot about 4 seconds usually. Of course it all depends on the area. When it comes to shooting nature. You want it to looks real unless you are going for a strange look or some artsy feel. What ever floats your boat. But 99% of the time you want it to look like what it looks like in person. I try to do as little PP as possible. I hate my pictures looking fake and like I spent 4 hours fixing them. Keep on keeping on.......the best thing you can do is keep practicing. The more you shot the better you will get.

But won't the overall image-sharpness decrease with f/stops above ~f/11 due to diffraction??
I always use the optimal f/stop for whichever lens i am using too squeeze out the most of it, and besides with f/5.6 (canon 50mm f/1.4 which i believe is optimal f/stop) i think i got enough DoF for this picture since aprox 4/5 of it is in focus and that part out of focus doesn't add much anyway (kinda overexposed).

And about this pp, well I'm shooting nature but waterfalls long-exp look "strange" already whether pp or not since it d*mn sure doesn't look like that in person ^^


edit: thanks toes ^^, I checked the image @ 100% no need for sharpening, but thanks for the cropping tip ill try it out.