Weekly Photo Challenge No. 173 - Falling Water

[Sepiana]

Clive, four different views, four great shots. The light is beautiful (and so are the colors).

[Bailey]

Really nice photos Clive, TFS

And they are a great example of what I mentioned earlier regarding taking shots from different vantage points to see which works best.  To me, they all create a different feel for the scene

I can see I would have a difficult choice if I had to choose only one for printing

[pontiac1940]

Thanks Sepiana and Bailey ... much appreciated.
I walk into a decent scene and shoot away and then remember to walk this way or that way. Often there's a "better" shooting point.
The falls require you to move because there is indeed background clutter: safety fences, a house, viewing platforms, a RR bridge and a bad angle relative to the sun no matter what time of day. 
Thanks,
Clive

[dennis9]

This shot taken today at Burney Falls, California.  I was very much intrigued by the "rainbow" in the spray at the bottom of the Falls and tried my hardest to capture it.  I do feel my efforts were not quite what I had hoped.  I did not want to concentrate exclusively upon the rainbow, but wanted to make the falls behind a feature too.  Can anyone offer any pointers as to how I might have better achieved my aim?  Any help would be greatly appreciated.  I hope to tackle this challenge again in the future, and make a better job of it.



Dennis

[hmca]

Perhaps, if you took bracketed images and then masked in the parts of each that you wanted to keep? You would definitely need to be using a tripod and don't know if that would be an option from your vantage point.
Sure someone else will have some additional ideas.

[pontiac1940]

Dennis

That's a hard task. In this case the falls appear to be in shade and the rainbow (of course) is in the sun which affects your chosen exposure. In addition, in this case the background "behind" the rainbow is complex. Now the problem here is that you are up high and therefore the rainbow is low. If you could get lower that might help (as the rainbow would get relatively higher in the scene), but safety and logistics might prevent that. For "rain" rainbows the best times are early or late in the day because at those times rainbows are quite large and overhead. At midday (on flat land), if a rainbow is seen at all it would be low to ground as its "center" is 180° from the sun in a line with the viewer..you.  (Rainbows.)  Low sun = high, large rainbow. 

Best (non falls) rainbows I've seen have been after a storm passes (in the opposite direction of the sun), the sun comes out and there is a wall of dark storm cloud...those make the rainbows pop.  

Good luck. 

Clive

[Bailey]

Hi Dennis,

In addition to hmca's and Clive's suggestion, I would spot meter the rainbow and take additional photos at various exposures from the spot meter reading to give me as many options as practical to blend them into the overall image you have already taken.

The aim for me would be to try different things and take many photos to maximise your options during post processing.



HTH

[Sepiana]

Sept 11, 2018 22:31:20 GMT dennis9 said:

This shot taken today at Burney Falls, California.  I was very much intrigued by the "rainbow" in the spray at the bottom of the Falls and tried my hardest to capture it.  I do feel my efforts were not quite what I had hoped.  I did not want to concentrate exclusively upon the rainbow, but wanted to make the falls behind a feature too.  Can anyone offer any pointers as to how I might have better achieved my aim?  Any help would be greatly appreciated.  I hope to tackle this challenge again in the future, and make a better job of it.

Dennis

Dennis,

This image is perfect for the Falling Water theme. I really like how you took your shot – at an angle, with the falling water creating a leading line drawing our eyes to the rainbow (a bonus in itself).

As an "after-the-fact" suggestion, . . .

If you want to put the "spotlight" on the falling water (this challenge's theme) while at the same time making the rainbow more noticeable, you could try this.

- Duplicate the background layer.
- Change its blending mode to Multiply, 100% Opacity. (You could also try reducing the Opacity.)
- Add a layer mask.

- Paint with black over the areas where the effect is too strong (the falling water, the water at the bottom in the foreground).

[Bailey]

Sept 11, 2018 22:31:20 GMT dennis9 said:

...
Can anyone offer any pointers as to how I might have better achieved my aim?
...

Did you shoot raw files? Hopefully the answer is yes

In this case, if you have only the one raw image maybe make 2 or 3 copies and then open them at the same time in ACR or your preferred raw editor.

Play around with the various sliders - exposure, highlights, shadows, saturation etc in each image to try to get the look you want for the various elements in the scene.  In each image, concentrate on a particular element of interest (waterfall, rainbow, whatever). You might be lucky and be able to get the overall look you are after in just one image.

Then open the images up is PSE, fine tune if necessary and blend them together.

My preference is always to get as close as possible to the look I am after in the raw editor where you have so much more data and flexibility to play with and then fine tune the image in PSE.

Anyway, as always, just my 2c worth of food for thought

[dennis9]

Dear Helen, Clive, Bailey and Sepiana,
Many thanks for your feedback and the many constructive comments. First of all I have to apologise for failing to mention that my image was straight out of the camera, via the ipad, which is all I have with me here in California. I also took many, many shots with various settings. This one seemed to be the most successful of them all. It was not a really bright rainbow, so perhaps I was being too ambitious. However, when I get home, I will certainly put some of your suggestions into practice. Once again, many, many thanks for your interest in my efforts.
Dennis

[tonyw]

Took a while but I was walking past a dam yesterday and got this shot - the dam itself isn't very big or photogenic so I got as close as I could to the falling water!



Tony

[preeb]

Wonderful closeup Tony.

[preeb]

This is as far as I know an unnamed waterfall on Red Mountain Creek (or maybe the Uncompahgre River... not sure on that) along the Million Dollar Highway south of Ouray Colorado.  It's at the bottom of an inaccessible canyon, shooting almost straight down from where we managed to find a wide enough spot in the road to park.  Didn't even know the waterfall was there until we heard to the sound of falling water after we got out of the car.  The 2 sections total a good 150-200 feet of drop.

[whippet]

That is awesome, preeb. And the colours are beautiful.
It looks as though you were very close to the edge, there.

[preeb]

Sept 25, 2018 19:11:29 GMT whippet said:

That is awesome, preeb. And the colours are beautiful.
It looks as though you were very close to the edge, there.

Yeah... one misstep I'd be bouncing off rocks for about 500 feet (150 meters).  This is one of the more spectacular mountain roads in Colorado, and in autumn it's simply magical.  High mountains, deep canyons, and golden aspens.  I don't know what twisted genius had the notion of putting a road through there, but it was how they initially took out the gold and silver that was mined in the area, more than a million dollars worth in late 19th century dollars.  It's only 23.5 miles from Silverton to Ouray, but it seems like it's a lot farther when you stop every half mile for another photo op.