Africa's Queen

[Elmar Venter]

To see the Victoria Falls in all its glory is an awe-inspiring moment. I took this picture two years ago from a helicopter. It shows the complete spectrum of the falls running from Zimbabwe into Zambia. Zambia is to the right of the picture. You can see the two main hotels on the Zambian side running on the edges of the Zambezi river. The bridge is the border crossing between Zambia and Zimbabwe.

Canon EOS 350D
17-40mm lens @ 17mm
ISO 200
f8
1/500

All comments will be appreciated! (Own nit: light a bit harsh)

[Dave Mills]

Hi Elmar,Good overall view of the river and falls. I like the fact you have the right amount of foreground and you show the bridge. The light is harsh but how often do we get a chance to take a shot like this. A polarizer might of been helpful to cut through the haze towards the back of the image and take out some of the water glare.

[Robert Amoruso]

That is a cool looking aerial image and good point from Dave on the polarizer.

Local contrast enhancement masked to affect the BG only can reduce some of that haze. More here in my tutorial: http://www.birdphotographers.net/forums/showthread.php?t=20434.

Using the above I tried it at home using 30/50/0 for the USM and then masked out all but the upper 1/5th of the image. Retains some haze but an improvement in my opinion.

[Ed Cordes]

Stunning perspective. The small looking road really sets the size relationship. I might crop a bit from the top to eliminate the glare.

[Ramesh Adkoli]

Awesome image, Elmar. Given the constraints you were in, you did a great job in composition keeping the falls in a diagonal. The perspective gives a feel of being there. TFS.

regards,
ramesh

[Steve Martin]

I really like the wide view provided in this image. This is the first image I have ever seen showing the entire falls. I'm no pro but thought I would take a shot at it. All adjustments made in Lightroom 2.5.
Local adjustments to the falls
-85 Brightness
+40 Clarity

Gradient applied to top
-.14 Exposure
-57 Brightness
+45 Contrast
+15 Saturation
+38 Clarity
+33 Sharpness

Entire Image Adjustments
Recovery +30
Fill Light +22
Blacks +9
Brightness -6
Contrast +9
Clarity +25
-15 Orange Saturation
+35 Green Saturation
-23 Green Luminance
-63 Blue Saturation

Cropped a tiny bit off the top.

http://wild-captures-photography.smugmug.com/photos/744602961_ABNgm-XL.jpg

[Elmar Venter]

Thanks everyone for the comments and suggestions. Thanks Steve especially for your work on the repost - it looks good. Thanks so much.

[Roman Kurywczak]

Hi Elmar,
As mentioned above a very coold perspective and very well composed from the helicopter! I think Robert is more on track with the suggestion as Steve's re-post lost a bit of the image depth (mostly from the crop) but the FG now does pop a bit. I would get rid of just a sliver of the whitest area at the top of the frame and then do the LCE on the lowest section. The haze adds some depth and scale to the scene so for me, leaving it in is the way to go. Nicely done!

[Elmar Venter]

Thanks Roman, much appreciated.

[Dennis "Curly" Buchner]

Wow, never realized how big this falls is. Great comp

[Elmar Venter]

Thanks Dennis. Yes, Vic Falls are spectacular - 1708 m wide, average depth of 92 m, in full flood 550 million litres of water per minute are cascading over the brink.

[Morkel Erasmus]

wow Elmar must've been a sight! I've only been there once.

I like your composition - the use of the falls diagonal line also works nicely. For me your OP works very well. I would run Robert's suggestion of LCE. maybe you can do a pseudo-HDR if you shot in RAW? (PM me if you need help)