Silver Creek South Falls

I always like to see something different and this certainly is that, with those strong vertical elements. The intruding branches LL are a slight problem and given that, for me, the waterfall is the main attraction the tree trunk seems too dominant.

It's a classic composition, but the blown out highlights are a big distraction for me. I would rework this in Photomatix to try to control the highlights. Ideally, I would take this through a version of photoshop after Photomatix, but I'm not sure if this something you have at the moment. Even when I use photomatix, I always have to use photoshop to make more sophisticated adjustments, unfortunately there really is no substitute for photoshop.

Compositionally this is very nice, but I would have to agree with Zack on the blown highlights.

Very pretty scene! The highlights are badly blown though, and the trunk of the tree dominates, when the attraction should really be the waterfall.

sandy r

Very pretty scene, but the problems already mentioned detract from the effect. Waterfalls in the bright Sun, with nice surrounding scenery are certainly challenging. In addition to the technical challenges, I think that foreground trees can make nice frames, but in this case, it seems to be a picture of a tree trunk with the falls just providing a pretty background.

This is a nice image Chad with some great green colors. What I find odd though is the tonal variation from the top of the waterfall to the bottom. The colors and luminosity change, which looks a bit odd. Perhaps this was due to Photomatix.

Very interesting photograph Chad! Appealing light and subject matter. Technically I would say the blown out highlights in the fall are a flaw, but it does not affect the appeal for me.

Aside from the hot highlites, I like this pretty well. It's nice to see all the details it reveals. I can't say I'm a huge fan of the full on HDR look.

Chris

Chad,

I like the concept and juxtaposition of the tree vs. the waterfall.

Now I don't want to agree about the clipped highlights to jump on the bandwagon, but more bring home the point that it should be an issue. I've never done an "HDR," but I would think that with 5 different exposures (I'm assuming 5 actually different exposure values,) that one of them would have maintained detail at the top and bottom of the falls. And if there is not data in the original capture, there is no amount of processing that will bring it back - short of cloning.... :-)

It's a lovely scene, just hope you can recover the falls.

Lon

Very nice composition. with 5 images I bet you can recover the blown highlights in photomatix. With photomatix I find that I almost always have to add a small amount of midtone contrast back into the image with PS. Recover the highlights in this and add a touch of contrast and you will have a very nice image.

I visited that park last year, there was a dusting of snow, maybe 2 or 3 inches. I found it hard to get compositions I liked. I'm thinking winter, and early spring perhaps aren't the best months for this place. In this shot, my eye keeps going back to the hot highlight in the pool. Our eye gravitates to the brightest thing in an image, and if that is not your main subject, then you have a problem.

I'll look back over my darkest exposure to see if I can mask back in some detail in the water and get rid of the blow out. I know the blow out at the top of the falls is there in all my exposures but I might be able to fix the bottom one. I also usually use Photoshop masking but I haven't done so with this one. I'm still trying to get the right range of exposures to work with for HDR. The last time I did this shot, the tree was fuzzy because it was windy but it was raining that time so there weren't blow outs. I'm still learning. Thanks for all the comments and help.

I redid the HDR in Photomatix. There is more detail in the waterfall but now I think I have a bit of an inverse halo around the waterfall. I tried just masking in parts of the waterfall from my darkest exposure in Photoshop but that didn't look right either. The reason there is a blow out at the top of the waterfall is because it is morning and the sun is just right at the edge of the cliff.

To me, your rework looks like you had the highlights in the water (at the top of the fall) blown even in the darkest exposure, so trying to reduce the exposure in photomatix resulted in a grey featureless area that is not so nice. It worked well where the water hits the pond, though.

In general, I'm no fan of the "photomatix look" which is exhibited by both versions. Sorry to say.