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Bob Decker
05-29-2010, 09:02 PM
This is my first BPN post outside of "Eager to Learn." This seemed a better location for an image of this nature.

I spent a couple of days in the Great Smokey Mountains, camping in the Deep Creek area near Bryson City, NC. This falls was less than a half-mile walk from my campsite. I was hoping to find a composition that was something different than what we usually think of for waterfall shots. Rather than shooting in front of the falls I decided to try a shot from the side, incorporating a large, moss covered tree and putting emphasis on the creek. I'm curious if you think it worked? This was shot in the evening and things were starting to get dark under the canopy of the spring foilage. Canon 40D, Tokina 12-24mm @ 12mm, polarizing filter, iso 1000, f/16, 1/6.

Dave Mills
05-29-2010, 10:51 PM
Hi Bob, Welcome to the forum and I think you put together a well thought out composition.
Whats hurting the image somewhat is the upper area where there is very bright light and some areas look blown.
A solution to this might have been the use of a graduated neutral density filter that would have evened out your exposure in the bright areas
Overcast days are also a benefit when shooting this type of scene since the light is evenly placed...

Hilary Hann
05-30-2010, 03:28 AM
I like the way you have thought out this composition and like the scene very much but have to agree with Dave regarding the bright light. You could try cropping more as a pano and taking much of that light area out and a balancing amount of foreground. When I squinted at the screen, mentally making the crop it looked very interesting.

David Thomasson
05-30-2010, 09:11 AM
Very tranquil scene, and nicely composed. Exposure is the obvious problem. Did you shoot raw? If so,
I would work on two exposures for up and lower areas. You might be able to recover details in
the trees at top where there's a lot of clipping. There are also lots of interesting details in the
creek that could be brought out.

http://img35.imageshack.us/img35/5600/creek.gif

http://img535.imageshack.us/img535/104/creekx.jpg

Mike Fuhr
05-30-2010, 09:43 AM
Agree with all the comments. Nice composition. I might take a bit off the left. Does it need a slight CW rotation?

David Thomasson
05-30-2010, 09:58 AM
Does it need a slight CW rotation?

I think it might.

Bob Decker
05-30-2010, 11:14 AM
Very tranquil scene, and nicely composed. Exposure is the obvious problem. Did you shoot raw? If so,
I would work on two exposures for up and lower areas. You might be able to recover details in
the trees at top where there's a lot of clipping. There are also lots of interesting details in the
creek that could be brought out.


Might I ask how you merged the two exposures? I don't seem to be able to get it right but the improvement is definately nice.

David Thomasson
05-30-2010, 11:52 AM
Might I ask how you merged the two exposures? I don't seem to be able to get
it right but the improvement is definately nice.

Not having the raw file, I just used adjustment layers above the image layer to darken some areas
and lighten others, using the masks on those layers to apply the effect where I wanted it.

If you're using Camera Raw, make your first adjustments for the darker foreground areas to bring out
shadow details. Then click on the hyperlink below the image; in the dialog box that opens, tick the option
to open as a smart object in Photoshop.

With that image open in PS, right-click on it in the layers panel and choose "New smart object via copy."
On that new image layer, double click the icon in the layers panel and it'll take you back into Camera
Raw. Now adjust that copy for the highlights; lower exposure, etc., and recover as much detail as you
can. Click OK and return to PS. Put a black mask on that second exposure to blot it out entirely, then
paint with a soft white brush to bring back the details in the bright areas at the top of the image. (If
you aren't at ease working with layers and masks, that's the first thing to do. It's essential to any
serious image editing.)

On top of that, you can add adjustment layers (curves, levels, whatever) to further bring
out shadow details or tone down highlights.

http://img710.imageshack.us/img710/9956/layers.jpg

Bob Decker
05-30-2010, 01:23 PM
Better?

Hilary Hann
05-30-2010, 03:38 PM
Wonderful, like magic.

David Thomasson
05-30-2010, 04:05 PM
Better?

Yes, much better. Lots of nice detail was lurking in those trees at the top. Good job.

Bob Decker
05-30-2010, 04:21 PM
Yes, much better. Lots of nice detail was lurking in those trees at the top. Good job.

Thanks so much for your guidence. For some reason I'd forgotten about using masks and, honestly, never messed with smart objects before.

David Thomasson
05-30-2010, 04:42 PM
Thanks so much for your guidence. For some reason I'd forgotten about using masks and, honestly, never messed with smart objects before.

You're most welcome. Also check out the adjustment brush in Camera Raw. New since CS4, it allows you to make local adjustments. In your image, you can paint the dark areas to brighten them, and also paint the bright areas to darken. It's another way of combining exposures of raw files. Here's a little tutorial:
http://www.adobe.com/designcenter/photoshop/articles/lrvid4008_ps.html

Bob Decker
05-30-2010, 05:39 PM
Thanks again, David. I'm currently still using CS3 but will probably upgrade to CS5 in the near future. The adjustment brush sounds like a great tool!

Harold Davis
05-30-2010, 05:46 PM
nice job with the repost, bob! david is a wealth of info!! i think a GND filter would have helped you out here. i really like the composition you tried. you got the best of both worlds!!!!

Roman Kurywczak
05-31-2010, 02:44 PM
Hi Bob,
Very inteseting thread with a wealth of info from David as usual (great Job!).....I agree with the observations regarding the light and while the GND would have helped.....overcast is the ticket. You may still want to plop the GND on the sky but as the tree protrudes in you may get it a bit too dark....so be careful with that. I do see something funky going on color wise at the u shape at the top of the tree so you may want to go back into post and try working on that. Nicely composed but this one still needs a bit of PP'ing tweaks.
PS You may want to try Robert's reverse s-curve first in post.....lower the contrast and then bring up the rest.....it's in a sticky at the top of the forum in tonal range tweaks.