Curly Creek Falls

[Mr Mac]

This weekend the wife and I decided it was time to visit the water falls along the Lewis River in the Gifford Pinchot NF here in southwestern WA. I took the shot with the Sony SLT-A35 but I have some learning to do with the little thing. I got the exposure all wrong for the shutter speed but the shot wasn't a complete failure with a little help from Picasa. My hope is to get rid of this thing and get a Canon 70D with some good quality lenses and a decent post-production software suite.

Have at it...

 

[Mr Mac]

By the way...

 

[Mr Mac]

Okay, I figured out my problem, uh, well, my problem with the camera, anyways. I set the camera in shutter mode instead of manual so the camera tried to decide what aperture was best based on the speed I set it for. Duh!

 

[JDueckPhoto]

I don't shoot waterfalls a lot but here's my input...

You were pretty close to your max aperture number (smallest opening) @ f/16 so you were closing most of the light out of the camera as you could since you were at ISO100. I think your lens is f/22 or f/32 for max aperture. The next step if its still too bright could be to use a filter like these. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neutral_density_filter) or wait til later in the day. Some cameras also go to ISO50.

 

[squirl033]

I don't shoot waterfalls a lot but here's my input...

You were pretty close to your max aperture number (smallest opening) @ f/16 so you were closing most of the light out of the camera as you could since you were at ISO100. I think your lens is f/22 or f/32 for max aperture. The next step if its still too bright could be to use a filter like these. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neutral_density_filter) or wait til later in the day. Some cameras also go to ISO50.

also, to help reduce dynamic range - which is the real problem with this shot, with the blown highlights, overexposed bushes, etc against the dark backdrop - shoot waterfalls on cloudy days, or when the entire area, not just the falls, is in shade. the light is flatter, with softer highlights, and the shadows aren't as dark by comparison, so you get a more even exposure. an ND filter won't change the dynamic range of the scene, it'll only darken it a bit and slow down your shutter. but it might help a little with the overexposed bits...

 

[Mr Mac]

Thanks for the input guys. I knew it was the wrong part of the day to even try thins but we had to get it while the gettin' was good. We will be going back and I will be trying this shot again and I'll make sure I either set the camera up for this correctly or wait for the shadows to creep in.

 

[Joemeche]

Thanks for the input guys. I knew it was the wrong part of the day to even try thins but we had to get it while the gettin' was good. We will be going back and I will be trying this shot again and I'll make sure I either set the camera up for this correctly or wait for the shadows to creep in.

Ah, the beauty of digital photography....when in doubt, shoot!
Remember the old days of "wasting film" and other considerations?

 

[JaniceL]

It's incredibly hard to get those perfect waterfall shots on a sunny day. You did the best you could with the light you had. Unless you have a tripod and Photoshop so you can expose for the different regions and then merge them. Even then it is difficult.

 

[Bill Anderson]

It's incredibly hard to get those perfect waterfall shots on a sunny day. You did the best you could with the light you had. Unless you have a tripod and Photoshop so you can expose for the different regions and then merge them. Even then it is difficult.

It never occurred to me to shoot a waterfall with the HDR feature of my 5DIII. I'll have to give it a try.

 

[JaniceL]

It never occurred to me to shoot a waterfall with the HDR feature of my 5DIII. I'll have to give it a try.

I have found onboard HDR to be a little lacking when it comes to performance but good in a pinch. Are you using Photoshop or Lightroom?

 

[Christine]

thats not a long trip for me so it will be on my 'visit' list!

 

[Bill Anderson]

I have found onboard HDR to be a little lacking when it comes to performance but good in a pinch. Are you using Photoshop or Lightroom?

I just shoot in jpeg and use Picasa for what little post processing I do.

 

[squirl033]

did you make it to the Lower Lewis River Falls while you were there? that one would probably be roaring about this time of year!

 

[TurtleTwist]

It never occurred to me to shoot a waterfall with the HDR feature of my 5DIII. I'll have to give it a try.

HDR is difficult with moving subjects, though some HDR software will compensate. With the 5DIII, you could take one photo in RAW, then save copies in the high and low ends of exposure and merge all three with the HDR in Canon's Digital Photo Professional.

 

[JaniceL]

HDR is difficult with moving subjects, though some HDR software will compensate. With the 5DIII, you could take one photo in RAW, then save copies in the high and low ends of exposure and merge all three with the HDR in Canon's Digital Photo Professional.

That is very true. That is why I feel it is best to shoot with a tripod and have three different exposures, layer them and merge them by hand, the old fashioned way.

 

[squirl033]

or simply shoot one exposure, then create "pseudo" over- and under-exposed images with photoshop. then do whatever HDR processing you feel like with those. i've done that, and it works quite well, plus since it's all the same image, there's no concern with moving elements not lining up in the final version. mostly, though, i just use ReDynaMix, which only needs one image to work with. many of my waterfall shots are processed with this software, and they come out looking just fine...