This past week I made a trip into Upper Michigan to photograph Bond Falls. I have been there several times but always wanted to shoot it with fog. I stayed overnight not so far away (40 miles) so that I could get there very early the next morning. I had lots of fog during the drive and there was nice fog when I reached falls. I had a wonderful time that morning with the fog…finally.
What technical feedback would you like if any?
Any thoughts on this welcome.
What artistic feedback would you like if any?
Pertinent technical details or techniques:
(If this is a composite, etc. please be honest with your techniques to help others learn)
Canon 5DMk4, 16-35 f/4L @35mm, ISO 100, F/16, 1/6 sec.
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Congratulations for getting to the place to capture what you wanted. I quite like the wide aspect choice, allowing us to see the falls and the surroundings.
You extend the scene beyond the tree on the right; cropping that in to the tree is an option.
For me, the brown color of the water, while understandable in spring floods, is a turn-off and distracts from the fog effect. You might like it as part of the story, In the revision, I desaturated it. The trees on the left, being nearby, are quite detailed and saturated, I gave them some fog.
Hi Dick, Thanks for your comment and also for what you did with the image. I like it better with what you did so thank you! I’ll see if I can do that to my large file. What did you do to add some fog to the trees on the left if you don’t mind me asking…it works! Nick
Really beautiful light and conditions here to work with. I would make this a panoramic and crop out the foreground since there isn’t much going on there in terms or water nor atmosphere. I think with some luminosity mask work you could probably get more separation between the trees and fog.
What a beautiful waterfall, and taken in wonderful foggy conditions. This was certainly worth the extra planning and effort to get it in fog like this. It creates such a nice ethereal and moody look, which elevates the image several notches.
The composition looks good, the arrangement of the trees is perfect, and creates a nice sense of balance. I would agree with @Richard_Wong that a slight crop from the bottom might help. I agree with @Dick_Knudson about neutralizing the yellow/brown cast in the water, I think Dicks purer whites in the water looks crisper and cleaner. However I prefer the cooler cast in the foggy sky of you original (Dicks rework neutralized that too). I prefer my fog to be slightly cool toned. I would lightly dodge the highlights in the foggy background. And I would also clone away a few bits of foam and white water that create hot spots.
And lastly, if you liked adding some “digital fog” in the foreground, I took that slightly further in a rework. To do this I bring the image into photoshop, duplicate the layer, add an ACR filter, adjust De-haze slider to -100, tweak the temp up slightly, and tweak exposure to taste. This often looks way overdone. Then I put a black mask on the layer that got the ACR filter to hide it, and at low opacity (2% to 7%) paint in the “fog” with a white brush at low strength, and only where I want it (the foreground in this case).
Hey Ed, Thanks much for explaining your suggestions and how to do them. I’ll have to give them a try and thank you for the repost as well. Much appreciated!
