These falls are in the White Mountains of central New Hampshire. It was a heavily overcast afternoon (downpour started a few minutes after this was taken) and thus no ND filter was needed for a long exposure. I did use a polarizer to reduce the glare from the wet rocks.
Please let me know what you think, the good and the bad.
Silky smooth - perfect work on the water flow. But unfortunatly I have to agree with Charles that the foliage is a little too overpowering and a little less saturation would help.
I actually like the "cyan cast" on the water, gives it a even stronger feeling of dreaminess. Just my 2c
I'd like to see both an unsaturated version as well as this. Somehow the blue doesent bother me.
I love this location as well as all of the white mountains, and I think this is a wonderful compsition and image. Ive taken so so so many pictures in hte whites trying to obtain something nice like this - A month ago my wife patiently read and relaxed whilst i was the jack arese in the stream with the tripod and the camera......and all my pics look real boring and regular.
This gives me ideas, becuase much to the wife's dismay, ill keep doing it until i fugure out what my problem is - and I think the use of a polarizer and a nd filter are a really really good start. I know you accomplished this without one, and thats commendable. So many i have tried have been quashed by the haze and the lack of a long enough shutter speed.
THis photo gives me a new approach - and I really like it! Congrrats on a great image.
Andrew, one hint for taking this type of shot is the weather. Overcast weather is best for waterfall and "deep forest" shots to prevent excessive contrast, shadows and harsh light. Dusk and dawn also work but are more challenging. And light rain can be your friend as well, as it gives a richness of color that is hard to get when things are dry. --c
Hey thanks charles. Appreciate that. I thing one of the things i struggle with is that when i shoot in this general area, im on vacation, so im not "stalking" my shots if you know what i mean. And if i showed you the 300 shots i took in jackson falls, you'd believe me.
Again, more insight into a shot that has always eluded me.
Thanks for all the comments and kind words. I am very bad at noticing color casts until they are pointed out to me. Indeed, it turns out that I had the wrong white balance selected in the raw conversion. I must have been playing around with it and forgotten to set it back to "cloudy" when opening in PS.
So I redid the processing with the correct white balance and this seems to have de-neoned the green. What do you think now?
You're off your rocker if you go with that second edit. The first version is an absolute David Muench. The color cast is perfect, the eye-popping saturation is tropical, velvia-ish.
Please, don't always strive for technical perfection. White balance is a tool, not a rule. However, there IS a rule "clone out dead sticks" ;-)
Once again, an absolutely breath-taking image, that first one. I would really love to discover what white balance you're using to hit this magic spot for shooting waterfalls in woods under cloud cover...
I find all the comments and opinions fascinating. Thanks everyone!
I am learning a lot from all this. Originally, when I bought my first dSLR a few months ago and started doing "serious" photography (it's still a hobby though), I thought my goal would be to capture "exactly what I see". Ha!
matthewsaville wrote:
I would really love to discover what white balance you're using to hit this magic spot for shooting waterfalls in woods under cloud cover...
First one: temperature = 5000, tint = -50. Plenty of saturation.
Second: temperature = 7200, tint = +30. Some saturation.
I too like your second version, yet find myself irresistibly attracted to your first one. The atmosphere that follows from the slightly oversaturated colors cannot be found in the "correct" second version. An interesting case. Thank you !
santiago
Aug 13, 2005 at 02:52 PM
Mark Metternich Offline • • • • • • Upload & Sell: On
It is kind of an odd call for me to say i like the first one. See, having been right in that exact place so many times, i KNOW and my brain knows that the water isnt that blue. Never. Somhow it does give it an awesome feel though!
