A Provence waterfall

Graham

Graham

Messages
7,328
Name
Graham
Edit My Images
Yes
Hi all,
Well I thought I`d take a drive to this lovely place (Sillans la Cascade) here in France and try a bit of LE
Camera was Nikon D750
Lens, Irix 15mm 2.4 with 2 rear gel filters totalling ND12
I exposed for the Sky to keep it blue and left the rest under exposed, then in LR using the Graduated filter tool I lifted the bottom of the photo.
With that and various other adjustments I came out with this shot, Me, I`m quite happy with it but could I have done better ?

LE waterfall by Graham, on Flickr

Click it for the flickr shot and others.
Thanks for looking.
 
Hi there it looks great to me. I very much like the composition. I think you could drop the shadow areas or what would be in shadow down somewhat to draw even more attention to the waterfall.
That said that's very much a gut feeling as my landscape skills are limited .

Gaz
 
Nicely composed image. The rocks in foreground right are out of focus/blurred. Maybe image could be cropped to remove those. Maybe a bit of added contrast to the foreground and bushes midground right....but still nice!
 
cargo said:
Hi there it looks great to me. I very much like the composition. I think you could drop the shadow areas or what would be in shadow down somewhat to draw even more attention to the waterfall.
That said that's very much a gut feeling as my landscape skills are limited .

Gaz
Click to expand...
Thanks, it's worth a ré édit to see what comes of your idea.
 
GaryLaird said:
Nicely composed image. The rocks in foreground right are out of focus/blurred. Maybe image could be cropped to remove those. Maybe a bit of added contrast to the foreground and bushes midground right....but still nice!
Click to expand...
Thanks for your input, oof or just because of the water moving over them gives that appearance. As above, I'll have a look at a re edit and see what comes of it.
 
•


Woaaaaah… lovely spot! :)
cargo said:
I think you could drop the shadow areas
Click to expand...


May I suggest…


Var83700p.jpg
 
Kodiak Qc said:
•


Woaaaaah… lovely spot! :)



May I suggest…


Var83700p.jpg
Click to expand...
Tell me please what you changed?
I'm on my phone until tomorrow so going between my shot and your edit is a pain.
 
Graham said:
Tell me please what you changed?
Click to expand...


On an adjustment layer, I just applied some
mid-tonal taming on the shady wood areas.

I will delete if you wish… :cool:
 
Kodiak Qc said:
On an adjustment layer, I just applied some
mid-tonal taming on the shady wood areas.

I will delete if you wish… :cool:
Click to expand...
Nah it's ok
 
The problem with long exposures is stuff you don't want to move moves...

One might suggest either taking one normal exposure and a long one and blending elements of them both together.

With waterfalls, not my thing really as I don't care for them massively but I take people in workshops who love them, is you can get a much faster shutter speed than you think to get movement. It's quite nice to retain texture to the flow so once you are faster than 1/5th sec you are there. Take a few just in case something blows in that time and you are ok.

Blue skies, (I love them) but they are a pain for exposure/highlights, these seem pretty good in this regard but there is some very heavy under exposure in the shadow detail in the middle right, that just won't lift out. A more overcast day might be the one for this.
 
SFTPhotography said:
The problem with long exposures is stuff you don't want to move moves...

One might suggest either taking one normal exposure and a long one and blending elements of them both together.

With waterfalls, not my thing really as I don't care for them massively but I take people in workshops who love them, is you can get a much faster shutter speed than you think to get movement. It's quite nice to retain texture to the flow so once you are faster than 1/5th sec you are there. Take a few just in case something blows in that time and you are ok.

Blue skies, (I love them) but they are a pain for exposure/highlights, these seem pretty good in this regard but there is some very heavy under exposure in the shadow detail in the middle right, that just won't lift out. A more overcast day might be the one for this.
Click to expand...
Thanks Steve, The problem with this lens is that the ND gels are on the rear of the lens and are a PITA to remove and on a windy ish day I didnt want to take the lens off.
I gave the shot a faster SS so I didnt blow the blue sky and knowing that in LR I can use the Graduated filter tool to bring back the rest of the shot as I stated at the start.
As for things moving, that dont bother me too much as long as its just a little bit here and there.
As for the shadows, I could use the adjustment brush tool in LR but I`m still learning LR so I left the shaded areas alone.
Hopefully one day we will get some descent rain and it will flow rich again like it did a few years ago, until then I live in hope.
Thanks again for your input :)
 
Heres one that I have tried a bit more to lift the shadows on the trees/bushes, A slightly different angle to the 1st shot.
And the water is this lovely shade of blue.

Blue Lagoon by Graham, on Flickr
 
Graham

your original rendition in terms of processing looks fine to me - it could maybe have benefitted from slight tweaks to highlights and shadows but on the whole it's been controlled well. The post processing isn't the issue with the image yet for alot of folk it's the easiest thing to jump to.

The compositional improvements you could have made are around the right third which pulls me away from the waterfall: the underwater rocks and the random log at the extreme edges of the frame catch the eye quite a bit - they're the kind of differences if you'd gone in a hair tighter and eliminated them it makes for a cleaner image. I think the second one you've put up as a composition is much better and less distracting
 
The first image, I pretty much agree with @SFTPhotography, for me the most distracting part is the oak leaves, left of center at the top of the frame. However in the circumstances with the filters behind its a bit of a problem :(. I can understand you not wanting to take your lens off to remove the filters. (some people don't think of swapping there lenses in any conditions, good luck to them).
With that in mind i would probably have taken a crop and lost those branches at the top. because you know what its like when toy spot something in an image your eyes are always drawn to it.

Like the second shot, think it works better compositionally.
Looks like a lovely place(y)
 
Stuart Mc said:
Graham

your original rendition in terms of processing looks fine to me - it could maybe have benefitted from slight tweaks to highlights and shadows but on the whole it's been controlled well. The post processing isn't the issue with the image yet for alot of folk it's the easiest thing to jump to.

The compositional improvements you could have made are around the right third which pulls me away from the waterfall: the underwater rocks and the random log at the extreme edges of the frame catch the eye quite a bit - they're the kind of differences if you'd gone in a hair tighter and eliminated them it makes for a cleaner image. I think the second one you've put up as a composition is much better and less distracting
Click to expand...
Thanks Stuart,
I`ve still lots to learn re the composition and how to use LR to better the photos and improve.

69Bonni said:
The first image, I pretty much agree with @SFTPhotography, for me the most distracting part is the oak leaves, left of center at the top of the frame. However in the circumstances with the filters behind its a bit of a problem :(. I can understand you not wanting to take your lens off to remove the filters. (some people don't think of swapping there lenses in any conditions, good luck to them).
With that in mind i would probably have taken a crop and lost those branches at the top. because you know what its like when toy spot something in an image your eyes are always drawn to it.

Like the second shot, think it works better compositionally.
Looks like a lovely place(y)
Click to expand...

Thanks Steve,
As above, lots to learn.
Yes those rear gels are a PITA, if there was a bit less wind I would have taken the lens off/filters out to give it a go.
Your comment has been noted re the objects in the shot.
 
That's quite a nice edit Graham, I like that one too.
 
My comment on the first shot of this thread ............... delightfully delicate (y)
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top