The Mist of Elowah

Scott - Great image, but the light busting through the mist near the top of the falls puts this over the top! Excellent handling of the exposure - maybe the right portion of the log center is too dark compared to the surroundings? Perhaps in the boulder shadow. The top area is bright, but not objectionable, as it isn't blown out and the eye might expect it to be brighter. You brought it all together with the various exposures. Nicely done.

Very nice composition Scott. I like the renderring of the water and, as Harry mentioned, the shaft of light coming into the scene from the gap where the falls is just wonderful. Is this another one of the falls in the Gorge?

Peter

Scott - this is the only image I have seen of Elowah with light coming from this direction. It's a new perspective for me and I think it may be the most interesting light I have seen there. I like the composition a lot and your developing looks great. My only critique is that the shadows feel a bit cut off/blocked up in the foreground. With that light I'm sure the contrast was plenty high.

Scott, the backlighting and rim lighting really add much depth when compared the other shots we usually see. After Sean's comment I noticed but not before. It makes the foliage pop a lot more too. I think you could lift some of the larger dark areas on the bottom right but don't touch the rest of the scene.

Harry: thanks for the comment, here is a version with the foreground shadows brightened up a bit. The log you mentioned is the largest change. I don't think I am going to be able to go much brighter than this without it starting to look weird since my foreground images are really just that much darker than the sky. The shutter speed for the sky exposure was 1/20 of a second, while the foreground was 8/10 of a second.

Peter: Thanks for the compliment! Yes, this is in the Gorge, Elowah Falls, just a few miles past Multnomah Falls.

Sean: Yeah, 1PM with sunlight is not your typical ideal conditions for shooting waterfalls so you don't see too many shots with this light. Honestly, I was there for the overcast and the sun just burst through at the right time. Without the wind / mist I think it would have been way too harsh. And you should like the processing, since most of the processing was done using stuff you demonstrate in your exposure blending tutorials. :) Thanks for the critique on the shadows, as I mentioned to Harry, here is a new version with the shadows brightened up a bit. I also manually sized for the web this time, instead of using a PS action I have, since I realized the action was adding a ton of contrast, and thus killing the shadows.

Thanks again!

Thanks Steve, I think most of the shadow issues were from the web sizing process. I was using an action that adds some contrast as it downsizes. Let me know if you think the repost fixes the issues.

Thanks again.

That is a very cool shot. I went to Elowah las time I was in Oregon but I couldn't find a trail that lead me to the lower pool. Regarding this photo, I love it, however, I think if you have used polarizer filter to eliminate some of the glare, it will be stronger.

Hey Abdullah, this was with a polarizer, the angle of the light just doesn't let it cut out all the glare. I don't think I ever take my polarizer off when I am in the gorge.

Oh and there isn't really a trail to this spot, you just have to scurry down the ravine a bit and climb in to the river. :) While it isn't a marked path, enough people take it that it is pretty well beaten down at this point.

you nailed it with the 2nd one Scott...nice work. I wish we had gone further downstream to get our shots...we stopped at the first set of large rocks, essentially where the log is.

Scott,

As someone already mentioned, I think you nailed it with the repost. The original was just way too contrasty for me - but I understand too about your sizing and prepping for the web issues. I think though upon looking at this some more that perhaps you could back off the changes a small bit, maybe 5-10% to introduce some darker values in areas like under the moss covered rocks on the right. But that's all subjective at this point. Great job with the composition and catching the mist and light.

Lon

Much better Scott, the right middle chunk of green has been kind of flattened. I'd bring in a little more blacks in the smaller dark areas. It's coming along good though!

Lon, I couldn't agree more. I had made a bunch of changes to try and fix the issue with the dark areas before I realized it was just my resizing action causing the problem. I already backed those out and have it back to how I like it. I just didn't repost because it didn't seem too worth it. Thanks!

Well, as I am responding to Lon, Steve responds with the same comment. I stand corrected, an updated version is worth uploading. This is basically what I started with, with minor shadow brightening + a corrected web export procedure.

repost two hits it on the head. well done.

here's an aside - in the past weeks we've seen a number of renditions of these falls on this forum. you guys must be queuing here! as a person who NEVER bumps into other photographers this must be very strange!

The light streaming into the mist sets this one apart Scott; lovely!

A very nice waterfall scene, Scott. I agree with Stuart, the second repost is my choice too. The original had too many blocked up blacks, but the repost fixes that nicely. It looks like very difficult lighting conditions to get this whole scene looking good, so I think you've done a great job with the blend considering that. I like your composition, and the way my eye wanders up the various 'levels' of the falls to the bg. The lighting around the trees at the very top of the frame looks a little odd (perhaps from the blend), so I might try an option of cropping those out even though you chop the top off the main rock on the left.

Stuart - I have only ran in to another photographer here once, and it was in the dead of winter when everything was iced over. It is pretty common for people to photograph this site, but there is never a crowd here since it isn't too close to the Multnomah area.

John - Thanks for the comment

David - I really don't want to crop off the top of the large rock on the left, I tend to find images of Elowah to be much more pleasing with that rock shown completely. However, you are definitely correct that the blend at the top there is not perfect. Because of wind motion and the drastic exposure difference between the sky and foreground exposures, the blend is really challenging. A lot of the issues don't show up in a crop this size, so I posted without perfecting that portion of the image. I will probably go back and spend some time to really nail that section of the image. Honestly right now my PS skills aren't good enough for that section.

Lovely, Scott. This has a spiritual effect for me.

I have a few questions. Is "blending" a procedure that is used in a program such as
HDR (high dynamic range)? With the 4 different shots listed in your explanation does
that mean that you had a different exposure reading (shutter speed) for each one of
those areas, or did you use a different DOF reading for each of those areas?

I have HDR but haven't used it much. I've only used it for exposure. For example, I
have taken three shots of a scenic at -2, right on, and + 2 and then combined the
three in HDR. I don not have any Photoshop version but am able to do this in Elements
7.

Thank you and keep posting beautiful images such as this.

Robert - To blend the image I just took 4 separate exposures and added them as layers in photoshop. Then using layer masks I selectively took portions of each to make the final image. I am travelling for work right now, so I can't confirm, but I am pretty sure all 4 images were at f16 and a very low iso (50 or 100). Then I varied the shutter speed to expose for different sections.

I don't really like the look that most HDR software gives to images most of the time, so I tend to prefer using layer masks to blend the images by hand.

Thanks, Scott, for the prompt and detailed reply.

Maybe a hair too contrasty for my taste, but still really nice Scott!

Mark

Thanks Mark, the first post was definitely too contrasty due to the web sizing process. I went back and reworked my 'size for the web' PS action and I like the contrast in the last version. Have fun on your gorge tours in a week.