The Allure of Spring

Gallery: LandscapePosted May 29, 2012454 views22 comments

I visited these falls yesterday with fellow NPN'r Ned Fenimore. We had an awesome day at several different waterfalls and streams in the Columbia River Gorge. The bright overcast light and peak spring greens created the perfect conditions for waterfall photography.

Nikon D7000, 10-24 Nikkor dx at 10mm, polarizer

5 exposure manual blend for dynamic range and tree motion. Processed using Lightroom 4 and CS6.

0.5 sec at f/16, ISO 100 - 2 images with these settings were used for most of the water and greens
1 sec at f/16, ISO 100 - for the waterfall on the right
1/5 sec at f/16, ISO 200 - for the foreground water texture
1/6 sec at f/16, ISO 200 - to fix the slight motion in the tree on the left

Thanks for taking a look and for any comments/critiques you have. Larger version is provided.

Comments

22 comments

Comment posted by Stan Rose on May 29, 2012 at 1:07 AM

Terrific shot, Scott! Great perspective and nicely exposed.

Registered on September 15, 2005, 836 Posts, 17099 Comments

Comment posted by Danny Laureys on May 29, 2012 at 5:58 AM

Just love it, the greens look great and water looks great, excellent

Registered on January 5, 2008, 590 Posts, 1261 Comments

Comment posted by Jeremy Calow on May 29, 2012 at 8:43 AM

Very cool angle on the falls Scott, lotta work but it paid off for sure

Registered on November 8, 2007, 39 Posts, 363 Comments

Comment posted by Nick Bristol on May 29, 2012 at 9:36 AM

Wow, this is beautiful Scott. What a fantastic looking place. Excellent work!

Nick Bristol
Lone Rock, WI

Registered on February 1, 2004, 752 Posts, 14140 Comments

Comment posted by Mark Windom on May 29, 2012 at 10:16 AM

Your technical efforts in creating this shot really paid off! Perfect treatment of the water, the greens really pop. The only thing I might add would be to lighten the ULC just a tad. Nice stuff!

Registered on November 1, 2003, 176 Posts, 2302 Comments

Comment posted by Morris McClung on May 29, 2012 at 11:41 AM

That is one gorgeous waterfall. Excellent comp and pp.

Registered on May 7, 2007, 670 Posts, 19650 Comments

Comment posted by R.Bill Moser on May 29, 2012 at 11:44 AM

Fantastic composition. Perfect shutter speed. Love those green tones here.

Registered on January 29, 2010, 285 Posts, 4281 Comments

Comment posted by Nicolaus Wegner on May 29, 2012 at 12:01 PM

This is a gorgeous scene Scott. Wicked comp...for some reason my favorite part of this image is the small falls sneaking from the right of the image...very cool.

LR4 and CS6 worth the upgrade? LR3 and CS5 seem to be an excellent combo. Not sure if it's worth the extra hundreds. What is your opinion?

Registered on February 21, 2010, 133 Posts, 1509 Comments

Comment posted by Jeremy Cram on May 29, 2012 at 12:05 PM

This came together great Scott! Wonderfully thought out and engineered. I was there a few months ago when the water was pumping and it was really unshootable from this vantage. The two falls on the right were almost touching they were so big.

Registered on June 4, 2006, 204 Posts, 818 Comments

Comment posted by Todd Liotine on May 29, 2012 at 2:51 PM

Great processing and the greens look amazing

Registered on July 1, 2008, 131 Posts, 671 Comments

Comment posted by Nancy Lea Sandy on May 29, 2012 at 5:25 PM

Beautiful lush greens and lovely location. Not sure I'm comfortable with the different exposures on different parts of the stream. It makes a beautiful image but the rate of flow looks a bit implausable. Probably just me and my old eyes. You've certainly captured a wonderful play of light and shadow.

Registered on January 24, 2011, 576 Posts, 6942 Comments

Comment posted by Tony Kuyper on May 29, 2012 at 5:29 PM

Looks like an amazing place, Scott. Water in LLC seems to have enough texture to maybe pull out a little more. I can almost hear the water rushing here.

Registered on November 1, 2003, 364 Posts, 22328 Comments

Comment posted by Bill Chambers on May 29, 2012 at 5:43 PM

VERY nice Scott. So lush, it looks tropical in nature even though I know it's not. Nicely done.

Registered on April 10, 2005, 753 Posts, 21216 Comments

Comment posted by Yiming Hu on May 29, 2012 at 7:58 PM

Beautiful composition and great processing, Scott. I also think the ULC can be lighten up slightly, but that's nitpicking.

Registered on April 28, 2011, 38 Posts, 733 Comments

Comment posted by Verdon on May 29, 2012 at 8:02 PM

amazing the large version swallowed me in to woods, great shot and thank you for the process explanation , STUNNING!!!!

Registered on June 10, 2011, 147 Posts, 1444 Comments

Comment posted by Vance Gese on May 29, 2012 at 11:43 PM

Beautiful symphony of waterfalls, Scott. Impeccable blending. The greens are rich and the water motion just right. Superb work.

Registered on November 13, 2008, 298 Posts, 6629 Comments

Comment posted by Ryan Wright on May 30, 2012 at 1:19 AM

Scott, that's an incredible photo! Great movement and colors!

Registered on January 6, 2012, 14 Posts, 25 Comments

Comment posted by Scott Smorra on May 30, 2012 at 1:56 AM

Thanks to everyone for the comments. I appreciate it.
Nicolaus: Lightroom 4 and CS6 offer some subtle improvements over the previous versions. I really like the new highlights, shadows, whites, blacks controls in Lightroom 4. It's really amazing what you can do to adjust the exposure of an image with these controls. I'd recommend trying out the free trials of both programs to see what you think. There is certainly nothing wrong with LR3 and CS5, but you may decide the subtle improvements are worth the cost.

Registered on November 2, 2009, 161 Posts, 2143 Comments

Comment posted by David Edwards on May 30, 2012 at 2:56 AM

Lovely fresh greens and white water make this one quite energizing. Good blend. Nice work Scott.

Registered on December 6, 2008, 142 Posts, 2623 Comments

Comment posted by Mark Metternich on May 31, 2012 at 12:03 PM

Looks great Scott!

Registered on June 19, 2009, 276 Posts, 6240 Comments

Comment posted by Dean Sauskojus on May 31, 2012 at 2:51 PM

Man I wish we had waterfalls like this around here. Your shot reminds me of Kah Kit's photos of Australian and New Zealand waterfalls. Very beautiful shot Scott. Congrats!

Registered on September 29, 2009, 137 Posts, 2659 Comments

Comment posted by Shantikara Valuska on May 31, 2012 at 4:23 PM

Best waterfall image I've seen in a long time! Really Majestic!

Registered on July 25, 2011, 38 Posts, 451 Comments