I've taken this picture at Mist Falls in Kings Canyon NP is the Sierras, but I've came upon this mental/visual/artist block in terms of enhancing this image to make it more appealing.... I've done contrast and it helped. Maybe a little dodging and burning would help too.... Or maybe a simple cropping will do. Or is this a lost hope? What do you all think?
Any suggestions/comments (good or bad) would be great. I know the foreground element is not very interesting, but with it in, it helps with the waterfall.
Chun Ming Huang
Posted by Todd Caudle on September 5, 2007 at 6:53 PM
Why is there a bright white wedding dress laying on the ground over there?
Posted by Kalin Wilson on September 5, 2007 at 9:38 PM
This shot looks like it could use more contrast. There is little definition in the water (Todd's comment), and the range of color between the water and the rocks is narrow.
If you have this as a raw file, you might process for raw two-three times for different exposures and do a blend. That might bring out more depth in the rocks and water.
Posted by Todd Caudle on September 5, 2007 at 10:05 PM
If there's still detail in the water highlights (wedding dress), try adding a selective color adjustment layer, and add black to the whites. It will affect the rest of the image, too, so make sure to do it on a layer, and paint with a black brush over the parts of the image you don't want affected.
Posted by Derek Sedillo on September 5, 2007 at 10:52 PM
Chung,
I would recommend investing in an ND filter for daylight water shots if you don't use one already. I have a B+W 6 stop ND and when combined with my CPL I can shoot mid day and not blow out the highlights. here is an example: http://derek.zenfolio.com/img/v1/p390421694-5.jpg
I did however use techniques similar to what Todd mentioned. For the brightest part of the falls I used another layer which was exposed 'darker' from the same RAW file. Then I simply applied that part only to the areas which were too bright. I use the select>feather>cut technique in PS. This left me with a layer of only the parts I wanted. Then adjust opacity of that layer to fine tune.
- Derek
Posted by Rick Dunn on September 6, 2007 at 8:58 AM
Hi Chun - I agree with the others that what would benefit this the most is having detail in the waterfall. Since it's easily the most important element in the scene, you really want to have that part presented very well, and the other parts can then play a supporting role.
Trying to bring up the contrast would also benefit this image, but only if you can first get detail out of the falls from the original file. Let us know how it goes!
Posted by Don Grall on September 6, 2007 at 10:00 AM
The most important element is the waterfall and I agree with the above suggestions. I also feel the foreground vegetation is distracting and would like to see a closer compositon of only the waterfall and surrounding rock shoreline.
Discussion
6 repliesI've taken this picture at Mist Falls in Kings Canyon NP is the Sierras, but I've came upon this mental/visual/artist block in terms of enhancing this image to make it more appealing.... I've done contrast and it helped. Maybe a little dodging and burning would help too.... Or maybe a simple cropping will do. Or is this a lost hope? What do you all think?
Any suggestions/comments (good or bad) would be great. I know the foreground element is not very interesting, but with it in, it helps with the waterfall.
Chun Ming Huang
If you have this as a raw file, you might process for raw two-three times for different exposures and do a blend. That might bring out more depth in the rocks and water.
I would recommend investing in an ND filter for daylight water shots if you don't use one already. I have a B+W 6 stop ND and when combined with my CPL I can shoot mid day and not blow out the highlights. here is an example:
http://derek.zenfolio.com/img/v1/p390421694-5.jpg
I did however use techniques similar to what Todd mentioned. For the brightest part of the falls I used another layer which was exposed 'darker' from the same RAW file. Then I simply applied that part only to the areas which were too bright. I use the select>feather>cut technique in PS. This left me with a layer of only the parts I wanted. Then adjust opacity of that layer to fine tune.
- Derek
Trying to bring up the contrast would also benefit this image, but only if you can first get detail out of the falls from the original file. Let us know how it goes!