Athabasca Falls

[Phil Ginn]

http://www.ourphotographicjourneys.com/Forum%20Photos/image1.jpg

We are attempting to select some images for our upcoming local photography contest. We would like to post a few to see what we may be missing in our processing and to receive some input on which maybe the best images.This image was taken on our fall trip to Canada. It is of the Athabasca Falls in Jasper National Park moments before sunset.

It is a merged image taken at 14mm, f25, ISO100. One image was 1/6 second and the second 0.6 seconds. Thanks for looking.<O:p</O:p

[Roman Kurywczak]

Hey Phil,
I like the comp very much but would consider lightening some parts of the rocks and falls slightly....if it is allowed.....I do think you just need subtle tweaks....so just be careful when doing them. Very nicely done.

[Robert Amoruso]

Phil,

I agree on the comp - well done. The eye starts at the top due to the brightness of the peak and travels through the image to the falls.

I hope you don't mind but I took a crack at a curves adjustment to bring up the shadows and tweak the brightness of the peak. Reposted here, I posted the curves adjustment I did below.

The problem with the curves and the shadows is there is not much detail there, too much correction and they turn muddy and flat. Same problem if you used Shadows/Highlights correction.

This would have been a good subject for a two image exposure blended (one for the FG and one for the brighter BG). HDR too would have been sometime to try. Even if you are not using those techniques now, when confronted with this type of expanded tonal range, makes three images 2 stops apart and save them for later when you are using such techniques.

DOn't forget to make this image too at the exposure used to be sure you have one best all-around image for straight up processing.

Looking forward to seeing more from you.

[Robert Amoruso]

The curves adjustment.

I also use Hue/Saturation and desaturate the cyan channel to make the water white. I then masked out the affect on the sky to maintain the nice blue in it.

[Dave Mills]

Hi Phil, Good advice given and a very nice repost by Robert. I like how the comp flows and the fact that you merged 2 images. Roberts suggestion about trying a 3 image merge is a good one. Good eye on this!

[Dennis "Curly" Buchner]

Very nice and well Done

[Indranil Sircar]

Very nice composition. Robert's repost is excellent.