Just for Fun No C&C will be given: Water

[Jaime Johnson]

HDR - Canon 1D Mark III / Canon 16-35

 

[Bart_van_der_Wolf]

HDR - Canon 1D Mark III / Canon 16-35

Hi Jaime,

That fern in the foreground was a potential source for trouble for multiple exposures, but you managed it.

Could you explain how many exposures you used and what the bracket spacing (in stops) was?
The image is a bit dark for my taste while the highlights are still clipped, which puzzles me a bit.

Cheers,
Bart

 

[Asher Kelman]

HDR - Canon 1D Mark III / Canon 16-35

Jaime Johnson Water​

Hi Jaime,

I like the subject and composition. The idea of water flowing both sides of the canvas is immeidately interesting. The fern, as Bart points out, is well images. It provides and anchor a reference point from which to explore the rest of the frame. However, that clarity is not found in other plants. It's not a question of depth of field, I think. Or maybe it is! I don't see any EXIF info in your file, so I guess this was processed perhaps in stacking bracketed exposures and so the info was lost.

This apparently simple idyllic scene is a rather complex challenge to image well if one wants the milky artifact of the water too. For the latter a longer exposure is required. If there was one image only, that meant the wind was still, for the fern is sharp. It is likely then that the fern was within the range of good focus for that aperture. However, the rocks seem well focussed too and the leaves near them are more blurred.

So I wonder how this picture was made?

Now to address the milky water. Interestingly is has a blue coloration one sees in (non lactose-free) fat free milk! The beautifully blurred columns of falling water are shown at very bright levels. I looked at the file in CS4 and there is a lot more detail in the apparently blown out vertical parts, but the dense white areas have no form at all. This is where the harsh difficulty of photographing water falls comes in our face. We want the water to sparkly and shine, but we'd like the turmoil too in the horizontal areas.

So, do i like and enjoy the picture anyway? Of course! It's delightful and brings joy and the cool countryside on this hot LA day.

Asher

 

[Jaime Johnson]

This is a series of five images provessed thru photomatix.

As you probably know by all of my stuff - I like it dark.

Canon 1D Mark III and a Canon 16-35 lens. Taken late in the evening.

First image is shot f11 @ 1 second ISO 400
Second image is shot f11 @ 1/4 second ISO 400
Third image is shot f11 @ 1/2 second ISO 400
Fourth image is shot f11 @ 2 seconds ISO 400
Fifth image is shot f11 @ 4 seconds ISO 400

 

[Asher Kelman]

This is a series of five images provessed thru photomatix.

As you probably know by all of my stuff - I like it dark.

Canon 1D Mark III and a Canon 16-35 lens. Taken late in the evening.

First image is shot f11 @ 1 second ISO 400
Second image is shot f11 @ 1/4 second ISO 400
Third image is shot f11 @ 1/2 second ISO 400
Fourth image is shot f11 @ 2 seconds ISO 400
Fifth image is shot f11 @ 4 seconds ISO 400

Jaimie,

Given all that range, can you recover more of the detail of the pools of the water fall or is it that you just prefer those levels to be total white?

Asher

 

[Jaime Johnson]

I actually like the white, but am unsure how to recover it if I wanted. I've tried bringing it in from one of the darker images, but haven't had much success making it look decent!

How would you do it?

 

[Asher Kelman]

I actually like the white, but am unsure how to recover it if I wanted. I've tried bringing it in from one of the darker images, but haven't had much success making it look decent!

How would you do it?

Well Jaime,

First the blueness of the water fall might be considered. If you reduce it, then details in the white might be more normal. So start in beginning with the current image in a duplicate layer with blue decreased in the waterfall. Later you can alter that by reducing this bleached waterfall layer, to taste.

The darkest RAW file will, of course, have the most detail in the bright areas. You may not need color information, but so try reducing saturation too, especially blue. See if you can reduce the exposure in ACR to get detail in the swirling horizontal areas and the vertical white solid areas. Continue this process in Photoshop CS2 upwards, with shadow highlight tool. Pull back the highlights a tad. Then these areas can be sharpened and added as a layer in photoshop and use a mask to show the rock and foliage areas on the layer below which don't need change. So paint those 100% black. Around the flat areas use a finer and softer brush at 7% and slowly bend the edges. When you have done the best job, use a percentage of that layer. So reduce it until the combined result appears normal with some added energy, fury and detail to the white areas. Adjusting the percentage contribution of this layer and its mode of blending, hopefully will achieve the result.

Asher