I really enjoy shooting waterfalls but have never felt that successful with them. This may be my best one to date. I stuck it out in a pretty heavy downpour that seemed to come and fade for about 2 hours. I made 3 different compositions here and I think all of them will work in different ways. I had to slip-slide my way around these rocks to get into different positions.
Specific Feedback Requested
There is some clean up that I will be doing, but I hate doing that before getting feedback because of layer issues and extra work lol! I want to clean up some of the holes in the trees in the ULC, the cut off leaf in the LLC, a stray stick on the left side between the rocks that pokes up, and probably the white lines where the water meets the rocks in a few spots. Other than that, I’m open to suggestions! I will be sure to repost when the cleanup is done as well.
Technical Details
Is this a composite: No
This is a combination of two layers, one for the whirlpool and water and one for the actual waterfall and the rest of the scene.
This is a great image, I really like the whirl. A good choice of shutter speed for the water fall and whirl pool respectively. One idea could be to darken a tad the cliffs to the left (at least the brightest parts) and to increase the brightness a little for the whirl, if possible to still get a natural look.
Very good work with this scene. It’s at once soft and soothing, but also pretty dramatic and has lots of points of interest. The overall composition is balanced and shows the season. I wish our rivers and creeks were running like this. The rocky overhang has such great texture I think I see what might be some subtle light coming into the whirlpool and the rock just above it. You could try emphasizing that light by some dodging and burning in and around that area. A light touch would be all that is needed. I think you’ve blended the layers well. I used to LOVE doing whirlpools with waterfalls, but haven’t had an opportunity for a while. Does the water show that cyan color naturally? Some creeks aren’t tannic, but I’m not used to looking at them so it could adjust be me. You could also try upping the orange in the whirlpool as well. The color of the leaves there complement and contrast well with the bluish water and that would emphasize them a little.
This is an excellent image Dave. The composition is very well balanced, and there is strong visual interest across the entire image. You processing looks great, you really nailed the color and contrast here. And long exposure leaf swirls don’t hurt either
While this is already a great image, I would like to recommend a few tweaks that might take it up even another notch. I would use LM’s to burn down the lights in the sky directly above the falls. And I would use a darks LM to burn the darker water in the vicinity of the leaf swirl, in order to make the swirl stand out even more.
While some may not agree with me, I’m also very fussy about stuff along the edges. For me the leaf on the rock in the LLC is a minor distraction, and I’d clone it away. A true nitpicker’s nitpick, I’ll admit.
Glad you got some good shots on your trip. Look forward to seeing some more.
For your first time there, I think you’ve captured something unique. I really love how the swirl compliments the horizontal streaks in the water above. I tried something like this when I was there, but it was a vertical comp. Your horizontal works much better.
I like this image. The streaks and the swirl look great!
My only suggest is relating to the colour. I’d consider darkening the reds using the HSL sliders in PS. The reds in the rocks are strong but I think if they were tamed a little the greens and cyans would come through stronger which would add to the image.
I echo the others and agree this is a well balanced and beautiful capture of this waterfall. The texture the waterfall is just right IMO. My only nit is the leafs on the left foreground rock are grabbing my eye, I would clone them out.
Great composition - the triangle formed by the waterfall-whirlpool-large yellow tree is perfect. I could see using those features as a basis for processing choices. Perhaps brightening up those three features while darkening the rest of the frame, subtly of course.
Thanks @Ola_Jovall I tried to add some contrast to the whirlpool by darkening the blues/greens and lightening the yellows/whites. I chose to leave the cliff as is because I wanted to have a bit of an angle there to point into the scene. I could see darkening it, but I think for now I want it a bit lighter.
It is actually shockingly cyan…part of that is maybe the contrast with the orange rocks, but it was really cool to see in person. I tried to add some contrast and up the effect in the whirlpool. @Kris_Smith
@Ed_McGuirk I was going back and forth on removing one or both of the leaves, I ended up going with both…I burned the top down for now but I hope to go back and actually clone out some of those spots, I just need to have the time to do it!
@Michael_Lowe thanks for the suggestion to go here, much appreciated!
@Nathan_Klein I had a hard time taming those rocks in the back, they are super saturated in reality so I tried to keep some but make it a bit less distracting.
@Alan_Kreyger Leafs are gone! Poof! Had they been further out on the point they probably would have added something, but I didn’t think to crawl out there and move them lol.
@Bonnie_Lampley Thanks! That is what I was going for! I’ve been trying to avoid overly dark images. I could see processing this in a very moody way, I did try to brighten those three parts a bit, not a huge amount but enough to point them out as the focal points hopefully.
Dave, regarding @Kris_Smith question about the water. It is caused by pollution from the old coke mines upstream. Also that’s what gives the rocks their reddish/orange hue.
I thought this waterfall looked familiar, I think Ed and/or Mike Lowe had a couple posts this summer from this same falls. I remember the comment about the colors creating from the pollution.
Great image @David_Wallace! You did a great job of capturing this image and I like the processing as well.
One thing you might want to consider next time is position the whirlpool to the right third line. Currently it’s right in the center which makes all of the action feel like it’s on the left side of the image.
The rule of third is great here because you have two related elements, the waterfall and then your subject which is the whirlpool and the ROT is a great tool for relating to elements together.
I did a quick composite to show you how much a difference it makes by moving it over a bit.
