Bridal Veil Falls 2

[dankearl]

Thanks for the comments on the first one and I tried to address them with this one.
This is the vertical "tourist" view, most often seen of this falls. It explains the "bridal veil" name.
I changed the WB to shade which I think addressed Don Nelson's "blue" critique.
(Thanks a lot Don, you have a great eye for this stuff).
I brought up the contrast and brightness a bit.
The water is a bit hot at the top still, Just could not get it right in camera even shooting way under and
toning it down just grays it out and doesn't look good.

1 sec., f16, 32mm, D800

DSC_7413.jpg

[Don Nelson]

Ah, the platform view.
I wish someone would prune the trees that are now growing into the image -- they weren't so bad 10-15 years ago. You did well considering what's possible!
The blues are well handled.
there is a lot more detail in a lot of the whites -- you may be able to go back to the raw and recover a bit more.
the way to get the detail into the image using photoshop is to do a linear burn with a duplicate base layer with blending (break the pointers apart) and then some additional masking to control the amounts. If needed (as in the upper waterfall, you may have to duplicate the layer a second time and do more adjustment on blending and masking).
You'd do better starting with the raw -- and this was only done on the little laptop display so a little more effort will yield a better version....
How does this look for water details? (and there isn't any separation in the whites between the 2 branches - maybe you can tease a bit more out of the raw??)

[Roman Kurywczak]

I think I prefer the 1st post.....but will echo my comments on the upper 1/2 of the falls (although I to think you could save them).....I might crop down to eliminate it entirely only leaving the bottom part. An alternative is to take 2 shots....one for brighter area and one for darker.....and manually blending them. Just a thought as I know the area and it is tough! Now if we could only get some hedge trimmers out .......

[Markus Jais]

Beautiful composition with great colors and soft light.

Markus

[Andrew McLachlan]

Hi Dan, I too am leaning more toward the original post. The vertical orientation works perfect for this scene as well. Some waterfalls can be tricky to capture with dark wet rocks and cascading water like you have in this photo. Roman makes a good suggestion to blend two exposures. Perhaps you have an under exposed version you could play around with blending idea.

[Rachel Hollander]

Hi Dan - I had to go look at the first image because I hadn't seen it before looking at this one. I'm leaning toward preferring this one because I think it gives a better idea of a high waterfall. Looks like the water was tough and you've gotten good suggestions. I wonder if a ND filter would have been any help in the field though it might have made the surrounds too dark.

TFS,
Rachel

[Morkel Erasmus]

Dan, having not photographed many waterfalls myself since moving to DSLR photography, I can't offer much constructive advice on getting that fine balance in the water/rocks.
I like the vertical "tunnel" view here, though, and I like the crisp details that Don's repost brought out. I think Rachel is onto something on the filters, perhaps a Big Stopper?

[dankearl]

Thanks for the comments.
Rachel,
The problem with filters on falls like this is time gets too long. So even though you cut down the brightness of the falls, (and everything else), the water blur looks
bad. It is a real balancing act. I like to use polarizers on water to cut glare but sometimes they slow it too much and I take them off. I go to iso 200 to speed
up the shot and go to f8 or f11 when I need to.
It is dark in most waterfall locations in the Gorge, total shade and dark foliage so the SS is slow anyway and I shoot way under to not blow the water as it is.
They are a challenge but I love shooting them!