Hillsborough River State Park, FL

[Robert Amoruso]

I always like coming here to do the rapids and had an opportunity to do that this week. Was hoping for more overcast but when the clouds covered the sun, I was able to get some images made.

This is a five image bracket combined in Photomatix using the "Exposure Blending" method which I have been using recently and loving it. Framing the edges to eliminate all edge interactions is impossible so I work to cut rocks and not clip and cloned out a small edge interaction at the bottom. Two curve adjustments were used. One was the Linear Contrast Preset in PSCS3 - a small s-curve adjustment. The other was on a highlight selection using CTRL + ATL + ~, inversed using SHIFT + CTRL + I, then selection a Curves adjustment from the "Create new fill or adjustment layer" icon on the layer palette. The curve was pulled up and left at midpoint to brighten the shadows.

My first test image of this scene did not use a polarizer. I made a series of images with it on and adjusted. However, I liked the sheen on the water better w/o the polarizer, so I turned it until the sheen reappeared and created this series of images.

Canon 1D Mark III
17-40mm @ 17mm
0.8 sec, f/22, 1.6 sec, f/22, 3.2 sec, f/22, 6 sec, f/22, 13 sec, f/22
Mode: Av
Metering: Evaluative
AEB comp: -2, -1, 0, +1, +2
ISO: 50

[Roman Kurywczak]

Hey Robert,
I think leaving the sheen on the water was a good idea. It adds a nice layer of seperation between the rocks. You know I love the long exposure, hair look, on the water........but am debating whether more of a rock clean up of the edges would improve comp...........as it would make almost a diagonal presentation of the rocks. The exposure blending looks very good.

[Robert Amoruso]

Hey Robert,
I think leaving the sheen on the water was a good idea. It adds a nice layer of seperation between the rocks. You know I love the long exposure, hair look, on the water........but am debating whether more of a rock clean up of the edges would improve comp...........as it would make almost a diagonal presentation of the rocks. The exposure blending looks very good.

I did work on some of the rocks and I felt it did not look right. I was just not able to blend the water in such that it did not look obvious to me. Perhaps because I was doing it and knew I was doing it, I was not able to satisfy myself. Thanks for your comments.

[Kaushik Balakumar]

Lovely image Robert. Agree with leaving the sheen on. Also u've extracted good details from the difficult scene.
However, in certain green leaves (present in patches, heart-shaped leaves), the hues look a bit off (with blue-ish tinge). Since I've not witnessed the scene, this may be the natural colour too. Hence am not sure. :)