Nature photography is a numbers game for me. The more you shoot the better you get. The more often you are out the better your chances for great light and subject.
This image of the lower falls at Long Pool campground was taken on my third visit. The first visit was a little early and the water was low. The second visit was right on time, the light was not bad but my focus calculation was off which caused the foreground boulder on the left to be a little out of focus. Argh!!!
With my new camera the focus is done mathematically using distance and depth of field calculations instead of through a viewfinder. The price you pay for incredibly sharp german optics. Well I am still learning so it is not the equipment it is totally the operator.
The third time I wandered into the campground just as a thunderstorm was passing through. That gave me the even lighting I needed to make the shot work. I made two exposures, one focused on the foreground rock and leaves, the other on the rest of the image to make sure everything was sharply in focus.
Finally good image or not, I have the photograph I envisioned during my first visit.
I have been working on a few images of these falls this evening. One of my favorite spots in the state. Not a bad amount of water, when did you take this? I really like the four leaves in the lower left.
Your camera outfit sounds like fun. I have seriously been toying with the idea of buying some old medium format equipment. There is something about a pain in the rear, manual focus camera that I just really love.
Nice Ed...Mike and I were just up there last weekend...I love your angle on this. Don't you just love the rock that lies between the falls? It seems to be pointing the way to the upper falls...
Hey Ed our persistance really paid off! It's a beautiful image and great job on the blend and technical side of the shot. I know the feeling I often have an image in my mind of a shot and must keep going back until it happens. The thing is sometimes a shot may only happen once a year or even less in alot of cases. It can be a very time consuming job to get alot these images and the general public often just doesn't have any idea how much trouble one image can be. Anyway great job again...
Beautiful compostion with great detail, Ed. It may be my monitor but it appears there is a slight red or magenta tint in the falls. You may want to desaturate the reds and magentas just a bit and see if that makes your great image even better.
Thanks for the heads up on the color, I'll check into it. Maybe I need to calibrate my monitor again. :) I use a shoot through white card for color calibration but sometimes it can be fooled when there is a lot of green in the frame. I could have missed it working on the DOF blending.
Daniel, This is a medium format technical camera. Cambo RS 1000, Schneider 35mm digital lens, and Phase One P45 digital back.
I was a little surprised when Tom and Larry mentioned the pink cast in the water. It is pretty easy to get a blue cast in the water since most of the time we shoot it in very warm light conditions and if the sky is clear blue that color is easily reflected in the water.
I try to take a white balance reference for almost every image I shoot. Since I have a slight color vision deficiency I have to really watch my colors. Things that are obvious to others are not as visible to me. With a calibrated white balance for each image I almost never have color cast problems so I didn't even consider it on this image.
Anyway, I the source image color did not have the color cast. I tracked the problem down to a Nik color effects filter I recently purchased. The skylight filter removes the blue casts from the shadows and reduces haze. Normally it does a pretty good job and it worked nicely on the rest of the image but added the pink cast to the water.
Here is a version without using the NIK filter. Thanks Tom and Larry for bringing it to my attention. Now that I know when I use this filter I will watch for colors more closely.
Posted by Larry Daniel on May 26, 2009 at 10:55 PM
You are most welcome, happy you figured out the culprit. I am sure you will return the favor sometime.
Ed, I took a longer look at the edit. It still has a band of pink tone across the image. Starts at the left most falls and runs across the large moss covered boulder near the center of the photo.
Discussion
19 repliesThis image of the lower falls at Long Pool campground was taken on my third visit. The first visit was a little early and the water was low. The second visit was right on time, the light was not bad but my focus calculation was off which caused the foreground boulder on the left to be a little out of focus. Argh!!!
With my new camera the focus is done mathematically using distance and depth of field calculations instead of through a viewfinder. The price you pay for incredibly sharp german optics. Well I am still learning so it is not the equipment it is totally the operator.
The third time I wandered into the campground just as a thunderstorm was passing through. That gave me the even lighting I needed to make the shot work. I made two exposures, one focused on the foreground rock and leaves, the other on the rest of the image to make sure everything was sharply in focus.
Finally good image or not, I have the photograph I envisioned during my first visit.
Thanks for enduring my rant!
Your camera outfit sounds like fun. I have seriously been toying with the idea of buying some old medium format equipment. There is something about a pain in the rear, manual focus camera that I just really love.
My weekends are busy so I try get out shooting each week Thursday evening to Friday morning. No luck this week as I was too busy at the office.
Matthew be careful once the MF bug bites you could get an ache in the wallet.
Daniel, This is a medium format technical camera. Cambo RS 1000, Schneider 35mm digital lens, and Phase One P45 digital back.
Three times or thirty times, you nailed it this time! Lovely shot that truly captures the serenity and beauty of this scene.
Thanks for sharing.
Dave Hatfield
I try to take a white balance reference for almost every image I shoot. Since I have a slight color vision deficiency I have to really watch my colors. Things that are obvious to others are not as visible to me. With a calibrated white balance for each image I almost never have color cast problems so I didn't even consider it on this image.
Anyway, I the source image color did not have the color cast. I tracked the problem down to a Nik color effects filter I recently purchased. The skylight filter removes the blue casts from the shadows and reduces haze. Normally it does a pretty good job and it worked nicely on the rest of the image but added the pink cast to the water.
Here is a version without using the NIK filter. Thanks Tom and Larry for bringing it to my attention. Now that I know when I use this filter I will watch for colors more closely.
Hopefully the gallery will be ready to open next spring you can pick up yours then. : wink:
Doesn't make sense to open a new business with this economy.