Found a gem of a location in Tennessee yesterday

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Archive 2012 · Found a gem of a location in Tennessee yesterday

redmonkee
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p.2 #1 · Found a gem of a location in Tennessee yesterday

Really lovely capture here. And the exposure blending has been worth the effort to get the superb dynamic range.

well done

May 14, 2012 at 09:27 AM

Fo Tollery
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p.2 #2 · Found a gem of a location in Tennessee yesterday

Very nice, VERY nice indeed!

Re: manual blending techniques....try Googling Tony Kuyper and 'Luminosity Masks'. His is the technique I use most frequently. But a forum member, RealKuhl (who I haven't seen around here in a while), posted this one some time back... .http://www.flickr.com/photos/realkuhl/412994075/. Keep in mind, no matter which technique you settle on, you'll probably wind up tweaking it some for your own workflow at some point.

My *guess* is that you probably could have reached this same result with 2, maybe 3 exposures if you find a technique you like. And that's not a criticism of what you did....quite the contrary, we probably should all try that! But if you can limit the # of images to something less than 7, it would simplify things for you a bit.

May 14, 2012 at 10:59 AM

kscott_99
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p.2 #3 · Found a gem of a location in Tennessee yesterday

It's hard to tell do the falls face east or west? As this would determine what is the best time to shoot during the day. With the amount of tree cover it looks like only midday would be ruled out.

Kevin.

May 14, 2012 at 11:28 AM

Travis Rhoads
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p.2 #4 · Found a gem of a location in Tennessee yesterday

very nice, and not too far of a drive for me, less than 3 hours... definitely adding to my list of future photo ops. thanks for sharing it. Looks like a great place, and you captured it very nicely.

May 14, 2012 at 11:55 AM

CDalessandro
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p.2 #5 · Found a gem of a location in Tennessee yesterday

WOW,a stunning image Christopher..worth every step.

Carolyn

May 14, 2012 at 12:09 PM

_Rob_S_
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p.2 #6 · Found a gem of a location in Tennessee yesterday

Wow, fantastic falls and great capture!

Rob

May 14, 2012 at 12:11 PM

cpoole
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p.2 #7 · Found a gem of a location in Tennessee yesterday

kscott_99 wrote:
It's hard to tell do the falls face east or west? As this would determine what is the best time to shoot during the day. With the amount of tree cover it looks like only midday would be ruled out.

Kevin.

Kevin - mentally tracing our steps backwards to get to the location, I think the falls faces south but I could be wrong on that. If the Google Maps view is North up, then the falls faces west. On the Google Satellite view map I included, the falls fast to the left. You can take the Google link and mark where you leave the car and enter the trailhead. From that position, the falls faces to the left and I am sure about that part. Also, It is nestled is HEAVY tree cover and there is a large cliff with caves on the left of the falls. So I think you are probably correct in that midday might be the only time it would suffer from direct sunlight. Both golden hours would be perfect.

One other consideration is that you don't need to fear getting trapped in the woods in the dark by shooting early or late. I tracked our walk from the car to the falls by GPS and it is only 1 mile on a well marked and maintained trail. Just follow the white blaze.

Chris

Edited on May 14, 2012 at 03:14 PM · View previous versions

May 14, 2012 at 02:56 PM

cpoole
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p.2 #8 · Found a gem of a location in Tennessee yesterday

Fo Tollery wrote:
Very nice, VERY nice indeed!

Re: manual blending techniques....try Googling Tony Kuyper and 'Luminosity Masks'. His is the technique I use most frequently. But a forum member, RealKuhl (who I haven't seen around here in a while), posted this one some time back... .http://www.flickr.com/photos/realkuhl/412994075/. Keep in mind, no matter which technique you settle on, you'll probably wind up tweaking it some for your own workflow at some point.

My *guess* is that you probably could have reached this same result with 2, maybe 3 exposures if you find a technique you like. And that's not a criticism of what you did....quite the contrary, we probably should all try that! But if you can limit the # of images to something less than 7, it would simplify things for you a bit.

Fo - thank much for this info. I recognize some of the names you mention and that is most likely because I remember some of their work as reflecting the very type results I have been after. I will check into your suggestions for sure.

And I believe you are right. 7 images could have been reduced down to 2 or three using lunimosity masking. This past Saturday, the forecast was calling for rain and it probably scared everyone away from the location. Of course, that also gave us the most perfect lighting for this scene. So...

..., we had the location all to ourselves (my son and I) and that's where the seven images per shot came from.

Chris

May 14, 2012 at 03:09 PM

Kory Lidstrom
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p.2 #9 · Found a gem of a location in Tennessee yesterday

A nice image. But, with this particular scene, you shouldn't need 7 images for dynamic range. I'd say two at the most. In fact, you most likely could double process the same RAW file twice and get good results.

May 14, 2012 at 05:29 PM

cpoole
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p.2 #10 · Found a gem of a location in Tennessee yesterday

Kory Lidstrom wrote:
A nice image. But, with this particular scene, you shouldn't need 7 images for dynamic range. I'd say two at the most. In fact, you most likely could double process the same RAW file twice and get good results.

Kory - what you describe is exactly the learning curve I am on right now. I want to explore the best methods of getting the dynamic range using the most direct-to-end-result and feasible processing steps. Any suggestions are most welcome.

May 14, 2012 at 06:43 PM

Travis Rhoads
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p.2 #11 · Found a gem of a location in Tennessee yesterday

I find that I do a little more of what Fo Tollery posted, rather than using luminosity layers, I use Layer Masks in Photoshop, processing much more like I was shooting with a graduated ND filter when the scene allows it. When it doesn't it is much more labor intensive, but Layer Masks are the way to go for blending IMO.

May 14, 2012 at 06:45 PM

cpoole
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p.2 #12 · Found a gem of a location in Tennessee yesterday

Travis - any favorite tutorials on Layer Masks? I am filling my folder full of that type info at the moment.

May 14, 2012 at 06:48 PM

Travis Rhoads
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p.2 #13 · Found a gem of a location in Tennessee yesterday

I was lucky, a friend of mine is a dang good Photoshop resource, he came and sat down at my house and really taught me a lot about Photoshop one afternoon. Layer Masks are more intimidating than they need to be, they really are not that difficult. You paint on them to hide or show the portions of an image that you want to blend, or you can use gradients much like a Graduated ND filter. The ability to control the brush size is great for working small areas.

But I must say, your method is producing some very nice results, I don't know that I would change it if it were me!

May 14, 2012 at 06:52 PM

cpoole
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p.2 #14 · Found a gem of a location in Tennessee yesterday

Travis - my straight-up blending method works for this because I had perfect lighting last weekend. The sky was like 18% grey all over. I have some other material where the contrast is much greater and I then have to choose whether to favor the highlights or shadows. That's where I will need the masking techniques.

May 14, 2012 at 06:58 PM

Gary Clennan
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p.2 #15 · Found a gem of a location in Tennessee yesterday

Very nice indeed! The 18-70mm is such a good lens.

May 14, 2012 at 07:19 PM

cpoole
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p.2 #16 · Found a gem of a location in Tennessee yesterday

Gary Clennan wrote:
Very nice indeed! The 18-70mm is such a good lens.

Gary - it did turn out to be better than what we might have expected from a "kit" lens. I had an 18-200 with me also but this was definitely an 18-70 shot. I stayed at 18mm for 70% of all the shots and it still did OK..

May 14, 2012 at 07:26 PM

drdrew
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p.2 #17 · Found a gem of a location in Tennessee yesterday

i love machine falls, one of my favorite images of all time came from that location. glad you have been able to enjoy it as well and nice photo!

May 14, 2012 at 09:23 PM

jay1hawker
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p.2 #18 · Found a gem of a location in Tennessee yesterday

Beautiful picture. We lived on the "wrong" side of the state for 7 years....Now enjoying life in Indianapolis....

May 14, 2012 at 09:30 PM

jay1hawker
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p.2 #19 · Found a gem of a location in Tennessee yesterday

We could use a nice 30 x 40 like that to hang on our office wall since we have no windows....ha
Really like this shot...

May 14, 2012 at 09:31 PM

Jim Sanderson
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p.2 #20 · Found a gem of a location in Tennessee yesterday

Lovely lighting and rich colors. A fine shot, wish we had a few like this in my area.

Jim

May 15, 2012 at 01:20 AM

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