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Archive 2014 · The Cascade Flow Wider

  
 
rschrader
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p.3 #1 · p.3 #1 · The Cascade Flow Wider


Awesome shot! beautiful composition, color and detail.


Apr 29, 2014 at 06:57 PM
gdanmitchell
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p.3 #2 · p.3 #2 · The Cascade Flow Wider


An impressive scene, and a photograph that probably makes many want to visit. Since the photograph is so well received, I hope you won't mind if I point out (or observe) a few tiny things that you might want to touch up just a bit as you wring as much out of it as you can.

You have a couple of wisps of cloud sitting right along the upper margin of the sky. I would consider cloning those out, especially since we only see tiny bits of them and they don't connect to any other clouds in the scene.

Likewise, there are points of a few rocks intruding into the lower right margin from below. You could simply crop, but I'm betting that you didn't want to lose that interesting bit of a wave near the bottom... so you might consider cloning them out.

I have a thought about that pink reflection on the water in the middle of the cascade. On one hand, it might seem precious to have such a reflection—in fact, I wonder if you increased its brightness and saturation a bit to bring it out? My reaction (and others may feel differently here) is that it is actually a bit of a distraction and I might consider toning it down and desaturating a bit. It is a colorful and intriguing bit of light, but it also tends to distract me a bit and when my distraction takes me there I find less than I might have hoped for.

The clouds are beautiful and impressive. To my eye there are two small things that I wonder about with them. First, the coloration seems a bit yellow to me. I'm betting that this was warm light, but a color adjustment made to warm the light on the mountains might be even more effective if it didn't also warm the cloud color. And are there are a few spots in those clouds that look like they just might have been a bit blown out? If so, you could tone just those brightest highlights down a bit—a bit of desaturation there, or a curve to darken some of the not-quite-white details. And remember that, perhaps counterintuitively, too much brightness in the sky will take the eye away from the primary subject of the peaks. And speaking of the peaks, are brightest portions of the snow fields just a bit blown out? Again, a bit of beautiful detail in those snow fields might come back with some curves adjustments constrained to the brightest area.

But, after all of those fine-tuning ideas, this is a very impressive scene.

Take care,

Dan

Edited on Apr 30, 2014 at 10:13 AM · View previous versions



Apr 29, 2014 at 07:16 PM
Leo Martinez
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p.3 #3 · p.3 #3 · The Cascade Flow Wider


Excellent everything...



Apr 29, 2014 at 07:25 PM
Regan
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p.3 #4 · p.3 #4 · The Cascade Flow Wider


I may be the minority here but in my opinion post-processing went way too far for this one. It looks like a scene rendered by a 3D software. In fact it's almost cartoonish.
It's an incredible scene with great potential but it does not look natural and lost the photograph rendering and feel to it.



Apr 29, 2014 at 07:45 PM
Nori
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p.3 #5 · p.3 #5 · The Cascade Flow Wider


Absolutely breathtaking, love everything about it. Would make a great wall hanger.


Apr 29, 2014 at 07:46 PM
Jonathan Huynh
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p.3 #6 · p.3 #6 · The Cascade Flow Wider


Fantastic captures.


Apr 29, 2014 at 08:20 PM
Steve Perry
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p.3 #7 · p.3 #7 · The Cascade Flow Wider


Can't believe I missed this one - what a killer shot!


Apr 29, 2014 at 08:28 PM
Gregg B.
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p.3 #8 · p.3 #8 · The Cascade Flow Wider


Regan wrote:
I may be the minority here but in my opinion post-processing went way too far for this one. It looks like a scene rendered by a 3D software. In fact it's almost cartoonish.
It's an incredible scene with great potential but it does not look natural and lost the photograph rendering and feel to it.


Hey Regan,
It's not a 3D rendered image, and I know you know that, but, the reason I'm saying it out loud is because it seems this way. I know why. There's a huge variation of colors here on this shot. You kind of don't expect to see something like this on an image. The blue water of the glacier deposited water makes it just unreal. I agree. If the water was, well, just more clear like we all used to, and sky was less contrasty and colorful this would be more of a "normal" image to us. You don't expect to see so much color variation. I have also used an Singh Ray vari-trio filter that enhances/enriches colors, polarizes (remove glare from the water etc.) and uses an ND to slow down the light (and motion of the water). This made this shot looks like a painting. But if you were there taking a shot with your camera and using the same filter I guarantee you would achieve the same effect simply because the place looks this way (with exception of a slow water motion of course). There are a few images almost identical on the internet taken by other workshop's participants that were with me and they look practically the same. The jagged rocks and sunrise colors, plus the water flow and the cascade with all these blue colors made it a 3D rendering image but it is not. I have a raw unprocess files and they don't look much different. I did small screen sharpening and just regular raw PP in Lightroom but nothing else to make this shot special. I think someone posted Ian Plant's shot from exactly the same place. Check his interpretation out. It looks even more saturated and cartoony.



Apr 29, 2014 at 08:29 PM
Peterk78
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p.3 #9 · p.3 #9 · The Cascade Flow Wider


Awesome image Gregg. Not cartoonish at all, IMHO, but simply mind boggling. Some places on earth, you just can't believe what you're seeing, even though you're there. I certainly hope I get to visit there someday and see it for myself.

Thanks very much for sharing your image, and your techniques.



Apr 29, 2014 at 10:21 PM
stanparker
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p.3 #10 · p.3 #10 · The Cascade Flow Wider


Love it, love it, and love it.


Apr 29, 2014 at 10:50 PM
CronoDL
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p.3 #11 · p.3 #11 · The Cascade Flow Wider


Beautiful shot with all the layers working together


Apr 29, 2014 at 11:04 PM
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