Wahclella Re-do Which Do you Prefer

I went back to Wahclella Falls and shot from the same general location as last time. Here is the current version (higher water, darker in general)....

Here is the one from last month. You can see how the change in water level:

http://www.naturephotographers.net/imagecritique/bbs.cgi?a=vm&mr=66920&CGISESSID=e1fb8d8f719b36f38a8d7a79b0e66626&u=12701

Much more natural color wise Marylynne. The faster shutter speed goes well with the higher volume of water.

I prefer the colors in this version Marylynne. The water works for me here, but I would prefer just a bit longer shutter speed to give the water a bit more blur. Choosing a shutter speed for water is a very subjective decision though!

I like this one very much and agree with Joe about the good selection of shutter speed to indicate a more vigorous water flow. As Scott said, though, more smoothness to the water would be another great option; personal preference rules, and if you are trying to sell prints it's nice to have other options available too. Never know who is going to like what...

Thanks, Joe, Scott, and Catherine. I do have another with a slightly softer water flow. I'm not generally into the super silky effect, so I don't have slower shutter speeds than this:

I think overall, I like #3 best Marylynne. The slightly longer shutter speed rendered the shadows with a little more detail instead of them being flat black. If you could tone down the whites a bit, this would be even better!

Thanks, Joe. I think I did tone down the whites to get to this point, but I'll do a tish more. I use LR, and its adjustment brush feature is not very well tempered. I might do an HDR of the two and select the falls in the dark one and the rest of the lighter one. Photomatix's new selector polygon thing is way cool.

Here is a quicky shot at Photomatix selecting specific images for falls and foreground and merging the rest from both images. Better still? I gotta admit, I still like Douglas Dietiker's in the Fall contest best!

Hmm. I think I actually prefer your original. I like the way the darker tones highlight the water, and they also bring out the saturation in the vegetation.