May of 2019 has been unusually rainy and overcast, in other words, waterfall heaven. In my past few posts I showed subjects with spring foliage or rocks, and said that I took them while out shooting waterfalls. Finally here is a waterfall image to go along with those recent posts. This tiered waterfall is in central Massachusetts. In fact, we have had so much rain this year that keeping texture in flowing water has sometimes been an issue, I had to boost the ISO up to 400 here to keep the flow looking reasonable (and the leaves from moving). Used a telephoto lens to extract out the center of falls in order to eliminate a number of distracting fallen tree trunks at the base of the falls.
What artistic feedback would you like if any?
Any critiques or comments are welcome.
Pertinent technical details or techniques:
Canon 5D Mk IV, Canon 70-200mm f4 IS lens at 100mm, ISO 400 1/4 sec at f11
A really refreshing image with the many waterlines and fresh greens! I love how the tele compressed it here, and the leaves are nice and sharp as you mentioned. The not-fallen tree on the right makes for an interesting additional subject to me!
I love the lines in the water and I love how it is being reinforced by the vertical tree trunks. The texture on the waterfall is very well processed and I like how you have rendered the greens, too. If there is anything, I feel that the water is too close to the left edge of the image but there might be something on that side that prevent you from including a little more.
First immediate thought on seeing this - GORGEOUS. A delightful capture and I love the texture of the falls. Question - Did you blend exposures for the consistent texture of the water? I have found it VERY difficult to get such consistent texture without blending different shutter speeds due to some part of the flow being faster/slower than others. The woods are flawless in both their light and composition; excellent work there.
The following is not so much a recommendation as just a “I might try it to see if it improves it” suggestion. This applies only the the falls area. I’m viewing this on a laptop so I might remove this suggestion upon viewing it on my desktop later. I might try (in curves) to darken the darker area “behind” the water to effectively increase contrast without blowing out the lights, thereby making the water appear a bit brighter and a bit more of an attention grabber. Just a thought.
I’m with Bill. GORGEOUS! A waterfall, cascade image can’t come any better than this. You know I love the cascading water, texture and the “long-enough” shutter speed… just mulitply by 10 the number of tiers and cascades there are. Wow!
I’m hard pressed to suggest anything. Perhaps adding a bit of shadow detail in the dark area to the right of the tree. And in this case, it’s not really because I want to see detail there, but in general a dark, empty area tends to draw the eye and distract. But I’m getting pretty picky at this point.
Ed, this is a beautiful capture of a perfect cascade and your shutter speed is spot on. What makes it even better for me is how you composed the tree within the scene. I have no nits, nice work!
I like your comp here Ed. For me the composition leaves some room for the imagination to fill in the gaps as to what is to the left and right of the frame.
I have to give Alan Kreyger an assist on this image, a few days ago I sent him a collection of waterfall images that I took in May 2019, and this was one of his favorites from that group, so he helped me select this one for posting. This is my second favorite falls in Massachusetts, there is actually a third tier below the two shown, but there was a bunch of stuff clogging the bottom so I only included the top two.
Bill Chambers, I agree with you on darkening the darker areas between the flows, it helps a lot. This is actually a blend of 2 exposures, one for all of the water, and another for the land and trees around the falls. I just got lucky with flow, all the water texture is from one exposure. I took several brackets for the water flow reason you mentioned, but only needed to use one. Lon, you may be getting picky, but I am a perfectionist, so I am looking for picky. Your comment on the dark area is also a good pickup. The rocks in this location are almost pure black, especially when wet, but I squeezed a little more detail out of it. Adhika Lie, there are lots of distractions to the left, right and bottom, this is one of those falls where telephoto extraction is definitely required. Comments have been incorporated into a rework, posted back with the original. thanks for all the help everyone.
The small tweaks in the repost are the ticket for me, Ed. I am thoroughly enjoying the soft lighting in the BG forest as it has imparted a lovely glow to the greens of the leaves. The vertical trunk of the tree helps accentuate the vertical lines of the water as it cascades over the many tiers of the falls. I think this works just fine without showing the bottom of the falls. I think that sometimes we as photographers; myself included; tend to try and show the whole waterfall from top to bottom when an isolated section works just as well if not better. IMO your post has captured the essence of the falls by showcasing the multitude of small tiers. Gorgeous work.
