Fall Rush

Gallery: LandscapePosted November 14, 2013495 views18 comments

Weekend trip down to the gorge with my gf two weeks ago, was hunting for waterfalls and catching the last of fall color. It appears I was a little late as most leaves have fallen. Shooting in the rain for the first time and turned out to be a pretty good idea as it added saturation to the scene. The leaves were found as they are, but knowing this is a popular spot some of them may have been placed there before I arrived.

5DII, 16mm, 0.8sec, F11, 2 images for DOF
Oh and soft-shell jackets are not water proof, they are water resistance…
Any C&C is welcomed,
Thank you

Comments

18 comments

Comment posted by Philip Hodgkins on November 14, 2013 at 1:53 PM

Good colors and details. The water flow is a bit too smoky for my taste, but I realize many photographers do it this way. I am on the fence about the blend. It does spread the DOF, but I wonder if it creates some tension between the dominant part of the image, the foreground, and the main fall of water. Including it is fine, but I wonder if it is necessary for it to be in focus. Altogether a very solid image, though.

Registered on July 24, 2006, 2741 Posts, 12349 Comments

Comment posted by Zhoen on November 14, 2013 at 2:33 PM

Thank you for a detailed feedback Phil. Never thought about DOF suggestion you mentioned, but now I see it may be good idea to mask out some of sharpening in the background. As for the speed of water, I was contemplating about it back and forth for a while. Ultimately I feel like I needed something smooth to counter all the detail, shapes and edges in the image. Maybe it’s part of the growth process, I will have revisit this image in the future and try other shutter speed.

Registered on May 16, 2013, 25 Posts, 188 Comments

Comment posted by Nuno Eira on November 14, 2013 at 3:02 PM

Very good and balanced composition, colors very attractive, just leaves the foreground are too bright

Registered on October 8, 2012, 37 Posts, 99 Comments

Comment posted by Harry Lichtman on November 14, 2013 at 3:21 PM

Those leaves sure do spark up the image. The water appears a little too bright for me, not sure if you could tone down or pull back some detail from the RAW. No polarizer? Thought it might be good for some of the glare reduction.

Registered on September 17, 2010, 304 Posts, 3507 Comments

Comment posted by Ronald Murphy on November 14, 2013 at 3:43 PM

Beautiful colors and classic composition. I'm a fan of a little more detail in the water though. Another possibility is they heard you were coming and pre-arranged themselves for the photo.

Registered on March 13, 2012, 279 Posts, 975 Comments

Comment posted by John Neukirch on November 14, 2013 at 6:15 PM

An exquisite image Zhoen but I'm always curious with exposure settings with stacks or HDR's. What are the different specs?

Registered on July 9, 2012, 207 Posts, 1476 Comments

Comment posted by scott lanz on November 14, 2013 at 7:29 PM

Beautiful, Zhoen. Placed or not, the big leaf maple leaves gives this a nice punch of color.

Registered on November 14, 2003, 840 Posts, 12902 Comments

Comment posted by Nick Bristol on November 14, 2013 at 7:30 PM

Zhoen, I love shooting in the rain and this just shows me why. I like this comp and sure enjoy the fall color. The foreground water and leaves are maybe just a bit bright for me, but this is very nice as is. Personal taste sure adds into photography and that is part of what makes it so interesting to me.

This might make a very interesting print!

Nick Bristol
Lone Rock, WI

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

Comment posted by Todd Liotine on November 14, 2013 at 10:06 PM

Nice image, the rich colors work well.

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

Comment posted by Zhoen on November 15, 2013 at 12:54 AM

Thank you all for taking the time to comment and critique. Here is an attempt at reducing highlight. Brought out a little more detail in the water with reduction in highlight and a slightly faster shutter speed, it may be hard to tell.

Harry, I used a CPL but to be honest I was not paying attention to the highlights. I think it worked out for me in this case as the intention was not to eliminate all the highlights on the rocks, but it did gave me a good boost to the color.

Also looked at adding faster shutter speed, but they were too choppy for my liking.

Registered on May 16, 2013, 25 Posts, 188 Comments

Comment posted by Zhoen on November 15, 2013 at 1:36 AM

John, I am not sure if I understand your question about stacks or HDR’s. Do you mean auto bracketing vs. manual exposures or focus stacking vs. dynamic range blending? Stacking images with multiple focus points or blending extreme exposures together. Since I am in manual mode, sometime there is no difference between the two. This scene was manually exposed with two focus point, and then they were manually blended together.

Registered on May 16, 2013, 25 Posts, 188 Comments

Comment posted by Nancy Lea Sandy on November 15, 2013 at 11:28 AM

I like the crop you posted much better. I was having a little trouble in the first version with leaves as large as the bg trees. My eyes just couldn't get the scale to mesh. Beautiful color and detail.

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

Comment posted by Todd Liotine on November 15, 2013 at 5:50 PM

Zhoen, I prefer the crop, i'm not sure if the near far composition works in this image.

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

Comment posted by Mark Seaver on November 16, 2013 at 9:22 AM

Lovely scene, with a fine tension between the bright leaves/soft water in the foreground and the falls in the distance. The repost is good as well, but it's a completely different image. I wonder about cropping out the leaf at the very bottom in the original but do like this as presented.

Registered on January 23, 2011, 1103 Posts, 17270 Comments

Comment posted by John Williams on November 16, 2013 at 10:27 AM

Nice classic take of this fall. Good point about the leaves, but I love the color they add anyway.

Registered on September 6, 2007, 221 Posts, 5985 Comments

Comment posted by Zhoen on November 16, 2013 at 2:14 PM

I should have mentioned in my repost, it was to show the water detail and the highlight reduction, I did not intend to eliminate the background. I guess the cropped version may be a possibility too.