I'm pretty new to landscape photos, this is my 1st time shooting a waterfall. It is Anderson Falls (Indiana) taken w/ 5D and 24-105L. Unfortunately I missed the leaves before they fell a few weeks ago, bummer.
Compositions are not too bad. Your shutter speed was too long though. You want to avoid getting those areas in the water which are totally white and blown out. Using a faster shutter speed helps. It's easy to change settings when you are in manual mode. What mode were you using?
Thanks for the comments. This was my 1st time to this location and it's severely backlit in the morning, so I had trouble with that. I was shooting in Av mode, should have went manual, just sorta forgot... I suppose because I'm used to bird/sports shooting where Av mode is all I needed. Still learning the landscape ropes, but I like it! I have a few more shots from here, I may post them after I catch up on processing.
As has been said already, the compositions are quite nice. With such a range of light, however, multiple shots at different exposures are generally required. You then combine in post. Naturally, this assumes that you've taken the shots on a tripod. Here the range of light is so severe that a single exposure cannot expose both the highlights and shadows so that both retain detail. Multiple exposures can do that for you.
Don, I actually did do a few multiple exposures at 0, -2, and +2 with the intent to do a few HDR's. Is this what you're suggesting, or is blending multiple exposures different from doing HDR photos? Thanks for the help/suggestions.
Ah, the waterfalls on a sunny day conundrum.
Very cool falls and comps, Mark. As others mentioned, these are perfect candidates for blending.
You'll get a potentially totally different look with HDR v blending exposures. In a way, they're both blending (one's just more automated), and will both result in HDR images, and both require extra pp work after the blend to get a nice, natural result. You'll find myriad ways to do it, and sometimes it'll work beautifully, and sometimes you'll be pulling your hair out trying to get it right!
All that said, shooting waterfalls is invariably easier in overcast, even misty conditions. I'm waiting for such skies to come in to re-shoot a certain area here.
Mark, just try stacking all 3 exposures, each in their separate layer in PS. I would make your middle exposure the lowest (Background) layer. Now select all 3 layers and align them (Edit, Align Layers). I would then put a black layer mask on all but the bottom layer. Using a soft brush, paint in the shadows and blown highlights. You can use the opacity of the brush and of the layer to modify the effects.
rpope wrote:
I like both these compositions. Even though the light was a little harsh, you did a good job with these.
Rich
what he said....maybe shoot for the falls light and then use LR to gradient the dark areas....but again nice comps and great work with the shutter speed on the water
Thanks again for the comments, and thanks Don for the tutorial. Unfortunately, I am on a new pc and don't have any editing software loaded except for DPP and NX2, so gotta make due until I get PS dl'd...
