This was taken on the trail going up past the falls because I liked the view and the rocks lining the trail in the shot. While I think the shot is relatively sharp in the center, it’s not quite how I’d like. I don’t know if it was me or the kit lens. Outside of the center is pretty smeared when looking closer and it seems to relate to the edges. I promptly bought a better lens (too late), but maybe someone with more experience can say how much of this was a lens issue and how much technique. <:-}
I was disappointed that we never seemed to see the falls and pool lit, which gave a rich blue rather than the typical aqua, but with the challenges of reservations and my hiking temperature limitations, I took what I could get. On the bright side, the light on the falls was definitely even and I’m glad they weren’t half bright and half in shadow. I tried to adjust my highlights and shadows accordingly in post. I also tried to bring out the glow on the trail rocks, which I liked. Is this under or over-processed? Suggestions?
I added three versions, although I find the vertical the most natural feeling given the subject.
(If this is a composite, etc. please be honest with your techniques to help others learn)
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Karla, since you are trial member, I am not familiar with your work, or experience level. But since you asked…
When trying to diagnose technical issues such as sharpness, It would be helpful for you to provide more descriptive information with your shot. Information such as aperture, shutter speed, ISO, etc, and whether or not you shot the image from a tripod. The center of the image is sharper than the foreground rocks, which are out of focus. With a composition like this where the foreground rocks are an important element, they need to be sharp. My guess is that you did not use a high enough aperture to get front to back sharpness. If you didn’t shoot from a tripod, that might have forced you into a wider aperture in order to shoot handheld. The rest of the image is pretty sharp, so my guess is that you may have used a tripod here. The other question would be where did you place focus in this image? I suspect it was focused on the falls, and you did not use a high enough aperture to get the depth of field needed for the foreground rocks.
Even at a higher aperture such as f16 or f22 it might have been hard to get the foreground rocks Some folks might even have use focus stacking brackets to get everything thing sharp here. In this image, I probably would have tried focus stacking.
Thanks to both of you for your input. I must not have put the settings in the right place. They are above the photos, and I believe all shot the same (why, I don’t know). It was handheld, but only at f8, ISO 100, 1/100s. I definitely could have made other choices there. At the time, my concern was having the waterfall in focus. I thought I’ve read/heard that the foreground doesn’t always have to be in focus. Is that a myth or one of those things that only someone who knows what works/what they are doing can do? I know you did say the rocks here were an important element, so maybe that is the key?
I have not yet tried focus stacking, but I should be trying it. The rocks were really close at my feet in order to see down, and the area below (driftwood, etc.) was also almost directly straight down.
It seemed like the area around the driftwood was not just out of focus but also seemed “smeary” to me along with some other areas closer to the edge of the photo. I didn’t know if that was something I did or the lens at 28mm. However, maybe it’s just regular out of focus or even my eyes (smeary), which aren’t the best.
I too agree with @Ed_McGuirk’s suggestions as he is always willing to share his expertise with others. If you are so inclined I would invest in a sturdy tripod as they are invaluable for sharp images and if you ever decide to try focus stacking you will need one. As a general rule of thumb you usually want your FG in focus. I hope you do not mind, but I did a rework with the OOF FG rocks cropped off. I also toned down the high lights a little.
No problem at all. Thanks for adding your input and taking time to work on the image. I did actually take a shot with a similar crop, but I didn’t post that option. I didn’t really finish it.
Do you have any advice on crop ratios, generally speaking? Maybe that’s too for off topic, but I never know if I should go beyond “original” or some set ratio and it did come into play when I worked on this image. If it depends on use, my most common uses are sharing electronically and possibly making a book or wall print for my own use.
Being new on this site and not well versed in web protocol for sites like this, please steer me in the right direction if I’m not using the site properly with my questions, postings, etc.
Personally aspect ratios mean very little to me. The composition should determine the ratio. I would never compromise a composition to fit an aspect ratio. It’s hard enough to come up with a strong composition. But to have it also match a predetermined aspect ratio really ties your hands. Just my opinion.
I did want to add one more thing about this image. When photographing under harsh lighting conditions it’s best to use the shadows as elements in the composition. That is, have significantly large blocks of shadows that work as elements in the composition. The original composition had that except for the gap above the falls. The problem comes when there are tiny shadows throughout an image. That fragments the composition which leads to a busy presentation.
I thought the red cliffs on the right came out really well. It’s too bad you couldn’t work your way down and work on a comp of blue on red.
@Igor_Doncov I don’t think I have anything between there and the bottom, but I do have some shots at the bottom. I feel Iike the angle is awkward, but I’ll see if I think I can come up with another option with the blue and red in mind also. Thank you.
As you composed it, the rocks are a key element, so they need to be sharp. In most (but not all) landscape images, the foreground needs to be sharp, the main subject needs to be sharp, and very distant things, or backgrounds can fade to softness. In this particular image, I would want everything sharp, from front to back.
I did not see your technical spec data at first glance, sorry about that. Yeah, f8 just doesn’t cut it for DOF, given your composition. Given how close you were to the foreground rocks, and that you want the whole falls area sharp too, even f16 or f22 is probably not going to give you enough DOF to get everything sharp. In which case you need to focus stack, or recompose to exclude the foreground rocks, similar to @Ed_Lowe rework (recognizing that you cant get it all sharp). BTW I actually think Ed Lowes composition works better, it is more simple and direct.
Consistently using a tripod is the best way to improve your landscape photography. Not only does help ensure image sharpness, but it allows you to use smaller apertures for creative effect. For example at f16, the longer shutter speed would have blurred the flowing water more, which may be what you want. And working from a tripod makes it easier to evaluate compositions through the viewfinder, a hidden benefit of lugging a tripod around.
@Ed_McGuirk Thanks for the additional information. I’m doing my best to understand the “why” so that I can apply in future, so I appreciate your help. I do have a shot without the rocks and I could post it, but I hadn’t really finished working with it yet.
I maybe shouldn’t confess this but I hiked in with a tripod thinking of using it to try some night photography, but I went without it that day to lighten my load/take a break since we just had the full day down there. I didn’t think much about using it in the day although I have done some slow shutter waterfalls before. I think there were some other factors influencing that I “lost steam” about some of those things and was sorry later. I only got one shot here I liked and none that I was overly satisfied with.
Thanks for helping me evaluate the “why” on these.
@Ed_McGuirk Thanks! I’m not much of a hiker and though it wasn’t as bad as I anticipated, I’ve managed to get dehydrated the last couple of times I’ve tried to backpack into the Grand Canyon, so I’m not sure I’ll make another attempt at it, even though I was disappointed in my photos. Definitely a nice place, nice hike though if it works out!
@Ed_Lowe Here are a couple of slightly modified ones with a similar crop. I don’t know if they’re better or of they exclude too much from the left - or if more likely I created some other issue… . @Igor_Doncov
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