C&C for an autumn image

vftt.org

Help Support vftt.org:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.

forestgnome

New member
Joined
Dec 3, 2004
Messages
2,625
Reaction score
600
Location
..Madison, NH
I was poking around some images from the past autumn. I'm not sure if I like this one or not. I like it but I don't. Does it need something?

lucybrooknpn.jpg


Thanks for any C&C

happy trails :)
 
I like the different elements of the picture but to me the ledge feels rather dark and gloomy, especially toward the left. The lighting makes me feel as though I'd rather be up among the bright yellow trees in the background instead of at the waterfall. I don't know if you could brighten the ledges, though, without negatively impacting the waterfall. Maybe a narrower crop, removing the left edge, would brighten the overall foreground?

-vegematic
 
I think the "issue" is that I'm forced to decide which side of the falls to look at. I.e., two subjects are competing for my attention.

Is that what is bugging you?

Tim
 
Nice. It is a very pleasant image.

I agree with Tim that it is kind of a "two images in one" composition. There is nothing wrong with capturing an image of the whole scene, but tighter crops on either half of the waterfall might produce stronger images.

And I agree with Vegematic that ledge in the foreground is a little dark. The scene might be improved with a split neutral density filter. This would allow the foreground to be brightened and the background colors to be darkened/saturated. The exposure contrast between top and bottom of your image is not far out of balance, and many might deem it quite acceptable as is. A one stop split neutral density over the top might be all you would need.

I have attached some images to illustrate two other easy things that could be done to improve the photo. My scenes are nothing special, but hopefully they exemplify the points. You can click on any of the images to see larger versions.

Polarize. The bright glare of the reflected sky on the water in your foreground draws attention away from the waterfall. A polarizer filter can reduce and potentially eliminate the glare on the water. Below is a comparison of unpolarized (left) and polarized (right) images of the same scene. I had the polarizer filter on the lens in both cases so that the shutter speed and aperture would be the same in both images, and dialed the filter to its minimum and maximum amounts of polarization:

--

Set the White Balance manually. Your image has an overall blue cast. This often happens with photos captured on an overcast day and in shaded forest scenes. Most likely you are using the Auto White Balance, AWB, of your Canon Rebel XTi (400D). The AWB is supposed to read the light quality (sunlight, shade, or overcast), and automatically adjust the color balance. I have found that this automatic compensation to be unacceptably insufficient, and/or ineffective. Here is a comparison of the XTi's AWB (left) and Overcast white balance (right) settings on an overcast forest scene:

--

I consider the colors in my AWB image to be unacceptably blue. The overcast white balance image is far closer to what my eye and mind registered in the field, and it is far more pleasing when viewed at home. Since discovering how bad the AWB is I now never use it, other than to capture an occasional comparison to demonstrate how atrociously bad it is. Yes, it is one more thing to remember to set properly, and of course it can also be later adjusted in Photoshop or another software photo editor.

All 4 images above were taken using the "Landscape Shooting Mode" to improve saturation, and all four are straight out of the camera without any additional photo editing.
 
I think the shot would be better if taken from the left side at an angle instead of head on. It's still a very pleasing shot, though.
 
Hey forestgnome,
I've done 3 edits on your photo. In the first below I used photoshop's Shadows/Highlights adjustment set to 10/75 respectively to brighten the shadows a bit and tone down the highlights. The second manipulation I started with the shadow/highlights adjustment and used LAB mode to tighten up the Lightness curve and improve the saturation a bit on the A and B channels.

The third image I just removed the cast from the original using this technique:
Removing Color Cast







Kevin
 
Kevin, thanks for that work, very interesting.

Mark, I thought "how does he know if I used AWB and no polarizer, I don't even know". Well, I went back to the original and checked properties, and sure enough, it was AWB. I don't remember if I used a polarizer, but based on your analysis, I beleive I did not. This, despite learning from Jim Salges excellent work with water and telling myself to always use a polarizer.

I usually use "sunny" or "cloudy" for WB. I probably used AWB out of ignorance of the proper choice. What would that be?

I will also finally get a split ND and learn to use it. I've got some sort of mind block in my head that fights against technical considerations in the field for fear of encumbering artistic vision and composition. I know it's wrong and it's something I have to conquer.

Thanks, all, for the helpful C@C. It's very appreciated. OK, I'm out the door. It should be pretty out there today!

happy trails :)
 
Last edited:
Regarding White Balance

I usually shoot with my Rebel XT set for auto w/b and use Photoshop's camera RAW to adjust it. You can also set your preferences in Photoshop to open JPEG's with Camera RAW and give yourself more options, including adjustment of W/B of your JPEG's in case you don't shoot in RAW.

Kevin
 
This is a really nice shot of one of my favorite waterfalls in the whites. I don't mind the blue cast, but playing around with white balance is always good!

I think that the technicals have all been hit, It's hard to say whether at polarizer had been used or not, as it looks okay to me except the depth of the shadows. I've actually gotten used to using a split ND filter (I know, I'm a filter fiend) on landscape shots like this, even without sky to bring out the shadows a bit more...

Compositionally, I like the split flow, and the strength of the forest canopy, but would perhaps like to see just a bit more of where the water goes at the bottom...
 
Jim, are you sure you recognize this waterfall? I don't even know if it has a name. It is right along the Moat Mtn. Trail (Lucy Brook), a few hundred feet east of the Attitash Trail. In fact, I'd like to see others here to a shot at it, especially in autumn or summer.

happy trails :)
 
forestgnome said:
Jim, are you sure you recognize this waterfall? I don't even know if it has a name. It is right along the Moat Mtn. Trail (Lucy Brook), a few hundred feet east of the Attitash Trail. In fact, I'd like to see others here to a shot at it, especially in autumn or summer.

happy trails :)

Carp...I am incorrect! I thought it was Gordon Falls in very low water on the way up to Adams from Appalachia.

I will have to check this one out though! Thanks...
 
Geology

Jim, are you sure you recognize this waterfall? I don't even know if it has a name. It is right along the Moat Mtn. Trail (Lucy Brook), a few hundred feet east of the Attitash Trail. In fact, I'd like to see others here to a shot at it, especially in autumn or summer.

For folks interested in geology, this location is very close to a contact between the Moat volcanic rocks and the underlying Conway granite. See if you can find the contact in the brook! :D
 
Contact

Actually the falls are probably there because the volcanic rocks (essentially a rhyolite in this case) are somewhat more resistant to erosion than the Conway granite. If you look in the stream at the bedrock, you should see the pinkish Conway granite where you were standing to take the photo and if you look carefully at the bedrock as you progress upstream towards the falls, you should see a line that you can put your finger on where the granite gives way to fine grained rhyolite (close to the base of the falls).

The volcanic rocks were deposited in a caldera. The Conway granite is the solidified magma chamber underlying the volcanic deposits.
 
Top