My first whipping (Looking Glass Falls, NC)

[MrBook2]

Please be gentle (but honest). It was raining so I had to juggle my camera, tripod and unbrella, but I had driven hours out of my way through the mountains to get there. I think it gives it a rather cool calming effect. I was also limited in my composition because I wanted to keep all the other tourists out of the shot. Oh, and I had to get some water spots off with the cloning tool. Ok, this shot had a lot stacked against it, but does it work?

http://mrbook2.smugmug.com/photos/31314422-L.jpg

--Aaron

[ian408]

Works for me. I like waterfalls. Especially the longer exposure.

Parts of the image look soft or out of focus. For example; the left side of
the image looks OOF where as the wall on the right is sharp. You might try
a little LAB color adjustment to lighten it up a bit too.

I'd love to see a few more (nature forum please) if you have them.

ian

[Allen]

Lovely setting and composition. I get the feeling it's tilted to the right though. The contrast
is little dull, could use alittle boost. I would clone out a couple of the light spots at the
top, esp. the big one top center, grabs my eye. Other then that I think you have
something realy nice, just needs alittle work.
AL

[wxwax]

Nice job smoothing the water. :nod And a lovely location. Things that would make it better, IMHO? Camera's not level. Needs some post punching up.

And the compo isn't working for my eye: that space to the right doesn't feel right. Maybe tilt down to reveal more of the river and connect the right side to the left side? Is it possible you were trying to capture two things and became torn on your subject? The waterfall or the rock face? I really shouldn't guess, it's just that by so clearly including the rock face, it feels like the composition suffers for the waterfall. :dunno

[pathfinder]

When it is raining, the scenery is a little low in contrast, hence I think the low contrast is appropriate here. I like this shot. Tilted? Not sure. I might have ried even longer exposures to try and capture the rainfall also. Shooting during and right after rain fall can really give saturated colors and moody shots.

[MrBook2]

Yes, it is a bit low contrast, and that I feel is a function of the overcast (actually raining at the time) skies. I am also not convinced that it is actually tilted, although it looks it. Nothing in the scene was actually level. The river is sloping down and away to the right, the falls are a an angle to the camera, the rocks are sloping up and to the right, it is just full of angles, and none of them are level. I will play around with rotating it.

I would have liked to go to a longer exposure, but I was at my lowest ISO, my smallest aperature, and I had my darkest ND (a +4) on, so 1/2 a second was as long as I could go without blowing out the whites (I am pretty close to doing it here.)

Ian, I am afraid that all of my shots look pretty much like this one. I have some shorter exposures of it that I could post, but I was in a bit of a rush. I had to drive about 2 hours to get there and I still had another 4+ hours of driving ahead of me. I was also doing my best to not get the camera wet.

Allen, I agree that the white spots in the top need to go. I will see what I can do.

Wxwax, I think you may had hit the nail on the head here. I liked the falls, but I also like the rocks in the upper right. I suppose the shot does suffer from too many subjects, but I actually feel the rocks are more interesting than the falls. The more I look at it, the more my eye is drawn to the pine growing out of the rock near the middle of the frame. The lines in the rock and the line atop the falls lead me straight to it.

I hope to head back over to West North Carolina soon. I am moving to NC in the not too distant future, and there are claims that there are 250 falls in that county of NC alone.

--Aaron

[ian408]

Aaron,

Driving 2 hours to find your subject and then finding not so favorable conditions
does present one with something of a dilema. But as I say, I do like the shot and
would definetly like to see a few more.

Regarding rain. Try keeping a towel in your bag. You can use this to keep most
of the water off the camera or to wipe it down. A plastic bag or shower cap will also
help keep the water off the camera. If want to, Tenba makes an inexpensive rain
cover (check the accessory reviews).

Ian

[MrBook2]

Ok, I tweaked the contrast, rotated it by -2 degrees, cloned out some white spots, and added a little bit of unsharp mask.

Is this better?

http://mrbook2.smugmug.com/photos/31458057-L.jpg

I think the USM might be a little too much.

--Aaron

[ian408]

I like the contrast on this one better.

Ian

[JamesJWeg]

I like it, but FYI if you go back, the angle is a little better mid stream, but you'll need some tall rubber boots. I have never shot it from there, but it is a better angle, the rocks are slick carry that camera in a good water proof case until you are in place.

James.

[MrBook2]

I like it, but FYI if you go back, the angle is a little better mid stream, but you'll need some tall rubber boots. I have never shot it from there, but it is a better angle, the rocks are slick carry that camera in a good water proof case until you are in place.

James.


Thanks James. I do hope to go back and spend a lot more time finding some better angles.

--Aaron

[gubbs]

Mr Book, the only things that I would add to the other comments, is that I think you need some foreground interest to pull you into the shot. If you got low (maybe a foot above the water) and wide to try and include more of the stones which are botton right in the current shot. With the long exp you might of got some misting over the rocks too :dunno

I hope andy doesn't mind but here (http://www.moonriverphotography.com/photos/22552492-L.jpg) is an example of the kinda thing I mean...

The only other thing I'd suggest is to go at at sunrise/sunset, you get the benefits of the sweet light plus you usually have the place to yourself so you don't have to worry about people in your shots. Check out where the sun will rise and fall before you set the alarm though, there's nothing worse than getting up at 3:00 am to find your location in deep shadow and realizing it'd be better at sunset :D... it's still the best time of the day though!

[MrBook2]

Ok, so I think the consensus of the opinions is: good location, bad lighting, and I need to rethink the angle. I was under a lot of constraints shooting it, and I think that Wxwax gave voice to what the problem is; it has two subjects, the falls and the rock. Something about it bothered me, and I think that was it.

This is how we grow, right?

--Aaron

[DavidTO]

The contrast is better in the second, but the color temp is cooler than in the first, and I prefer the warmer colors. It looks very cold and forboding in the second, and warmer and more inviting in the first.

[wxwax]

This is how we grow, right?

--Aaron


:nod :thumb Cool! Good thread.