Tumalo falls - help with snow

Tumalo falls from this past weekend. I'm trying to get a feel for properly exposing snow. The histogram indicated no blow out but I was pushing it pretty far right. Is it too bright? Any other critique is always appreciated. Thanks in advance.

Canon 350D, 50mm lens, F16 for .60 sec.

The whites seem to be lacking just a little bit in detail - like it is just on the border. Have you tried/considered selectively taking the whites and perhaps adding a tad of black to help bring in a little detail? There are perhaps other ways to do the same that might be suggested. I really like your compostion... wondering about the blues in the falls a little bit too...

That's a cool shot, Larry. I would say the snow is too bright - but the part that is most distracting to me is the yellow coloration at the bottom of the falls. Is that simply the rock showing through the water? I've never noticed that in this falls before.

Ned, thanks. I tried selectively burning the snow a bit, is there a better way to add black? I didn't add any color to the falls though I did add saturation and this may have amplified the blues a little.

Tom- Yeah, that is the rock showing through. It does give it a dingy yellow-orange look a bit but that is what it looked like and I'm not sure what I can do about it. Maybe some selective dodging on a layer and decrease the opacity until it kind of blends?

Looks fairly accurate to what you'd see from that perspective to me. You're not really going to see much detail in the snow at that distance anyway, so whether the snow looks too washed out would, to me at least, be completely irrelevant.

I have this same problem, both with the exposure and the processing. Realistically the snow should be white, but it looks too hot and featureless to me that way. So I back off on the exposure or use the recovery slider (in RAW) to get more detail. Occasionally the three sliders below help.

Anyway, I like where you set your camera to get this waterfall, Larry. For my taste, the snow is too bright. Most people would be wearing sunglasses in such a situation, so that is how I justify rendering the snow darker - just the highlights are pushing the bright end of the scale.

I've been here before and wondered what it would look like in the snow. Thanks a bunch for posting. Actually would love to get a sunrise or sunset shot, but low down on the stream.
Yeah, the snow is a bit bright. I usually bracket some under exposures and blend them some if needed. I do love the color of the water and how it looks like is is sorta frozen.

Your composite histogram wasn't showing anything blown out but I'll be you the blue channel was. I don't know if your camera shows the individual RGB histograms or not but, to me, it's more important to see that then the composite one.
Having said that though, I think this shot is pretty nice as it is, maybe tone down the whites in ACR to begin with.

Thanks for all the help. I'll work on those whites a bit. I actually toned down the blue channel in this image but perhaps some of the burning enhanced the blue. I've looked at other winter shots of the falls and they also showed some blue. I would love to upgrade to a camera with individual color channel histograms.
Rick- I was thinking the same thing as you, I snowshoed in here in the dark with the idea of getting down on the water at sunrise. I did manage to get a few close ups but getting near the edge of the water with the very steep banks and 2-3 feet of snow was a challenge. As it turned out, this was the best vantage point I could find with the time available.
While in town, at the Bend Brewing Company, I saw an amazing shot of this waterfall in the Fall. Apparently the foliage around it is brilliant. Perhaps then it will be easier to get some low angle shots.

Another option to control the whites is to use the "recovery" slider in Lightroom along with the "Luminance" tool to reduce the exposure in the blue/cyan channel. I always had trouble with snow until I started using LR and those problems have gone away.

As for the image, I really dig it. Looks like a stunning place to visit and photograph, Larry.

Another option which requires less specialty software but more learned technique is to use selective blending. That is what I use for snow scenes like this as well as water with blown highlights.

The only requirement is that you shot in RAW mode.

1. Then do one exposure for the snow and one for the rest of the scene. In this case you will need to underexpose for the snow ~ 1 stop.
2. Take both exposures into PS and copy and paste the dark layer over the the lighter original.
3. Use the selected tool for all the overexposed/hot areas>Inverse>Feather>Cut
4. Adjust opacity to taste

Using this selective blending technique you can also perform 'target' sharpening, digital GND filtering and other things as well.

It is a nice shot but the thought of photographing it in the fall is inticing. I also agree that the snow does look too blown out. Marks suggestions on reading the blue channel on the histogram is a good suggestion.

Looks cold! I agree with the above comments, some good suggestions for working with the snow.

Agree with the critique comments. I'll add that I sure like the comp, though. It must've been so beautiful from where your view was. That's a lot of white in the frame, for sure, to try to cope with on one exposure.

Hearty thanks to Derek for sharing the processing info.