Wentworth Falls meet Part 1 - the Falls

[Mr Darcy]

The forecast for the day was for one or two showers. We certainly got that & then some. The good thing about that was that the Falls were in top form, and the glowering skies kept blown highlights to a minimum.
For those of you that don't know the area, there are a series of small cascades on the Jamison creek leading down to the main falls, I didn't take any of the main falls, preferring to concentrate on the lesser cascades.
This one is about three cascades above the main falls.
A five shot pano:


And another view. Here I was taken by the dragon coming down to drink. I haven't quite pulled the shot off. ANy suggestions?


This is a side stream coming into the top of the main falls. It is usually dry so it is great to see some water here.


And the last drop before the main falls. Just above the fence.

[Remorhaz]

Hi Greg - nicely done with the pano - the stitching is near perfect. Compositionally I think it is a little too tightly cropped at the top and seems a little more washed out than the others but this could be an effect of the stitching

I think the second and last are my favorites and probably the second most. I don't however like the OOF tree (the dragon) - I think it was a great idea but I don't think it worked in this case - perhaps if it was sharp and taken from further away with a tele (probably not possible ).

[Mr Darcy]

thanks for that Rodney.
#1 This is all the stitching process gave me. Also I was trying to avoid the dismal grey sky so even the stitcher did not have a lot of room to play with. I was using primes on the day (until I got down to the 10-20), I may go back in a day or two with the 24-70 & try again at around 35mm. This was 50mm.


#2. Gerry got a POV about 2 paces to the left of where I was. You may prefer his framing. For myself, I am not happy with the execution of the dragon. Again I may head down again soon and try a few things. One thought is to add a little flash fill to lift the log. Another is to get it in focus rather than the Falls. Gerry suggested a slightly lower POV. I will try that too. Further away would be a real challenge. I would have to burrow into the hill.

[Geoff M]

All nice falls shots Greg, but the 'dragon' in the second aint working for me either. it would be a better image without it included. Perhaps as you suggest a little fill flash would held to gite it more definition and therefore add to the compo?

[biggerry]

Gerry suggested a slightly lower POV. I will try that too.

The third image is a cracker in my mind but it needs some tender love in the PP side of things. Its a perfect waterfall composition so just about anything you do to it will only improve it.

I may go back in a day or two

half ya luck living so close

[Murray Foote]

Some very nice images. I think I like the dragon best. I think the dragon needs to be sharper which probably requires focus bracketing and my guess would be, manually. For it to be drinking the water I think the viewpoint needs to be a fraction lower so that the lips of the dragon appear to be touching the white water above the falls. May take some trial and error to get it to work. I think the dragon could also do with a touch more shadow detail, so perhaps some exposure blending for that as well (probably not so much for the falls, but then, the lighting will be different anyway).

[CraigVTR]

Some slight tweaking of #2 to bring the dragon into focus as well as the falls and some fill flash as you mentioned would help.

[Mr Darcy]

I still haven't got back to the falls. I had intended to go this afternoon, but ended up helping a neighbour with his unplanned swimming pool in the front yard instead.

Anyways, I have had a go at a rework of #3
Increased exposure and contrast, then put in a graduated filter to knock back the sky in the top corner. Increased sharpness and vibrance.


Comments?

[norwest]

#1 for me, too. The colour in the rocks does it for me.

[biggerry]

Anyways, I have had a go at a rework of #3
Increased exposure and contrast, then put in a graduated filter to knock back the sky in the top corner. Increased sharpness and vibrance.
Comments?

looking much better, ditch the grad filter i reckon, if the sky blows out a bit I think that looks better than a sky with teh life wrangled out of it to try and get the exposure correct.

[Mr Darcy]

A rework of the "Dragon"
I reshot the photo today. The light was a little brighter so I had to add an extra ND filter to get the slow shutter. It was still overcast but quite misty today. I didn't quite get the same viewpoint, but I did lower the POV, closed up the aperture to increase DOF and used a flash to provide some light on the dragon. However, as it was more than 4 metres away, I think the brighter ambient added more than the flash did even at full power. It was also morning rather than afternoon. I set focus manually & pulled it slightly back from infinity to utilise the hyperfocal distance.


50mm 1.4; 3"@f/16 ISO100 ND16 (I used ND8 the other day)

[surenj]

Hi Greg,

I think version 2 is an improvement but feel quite ambivalent about the graduated filter (very obvious) and increased saturation/vibrance because the shot is quite nice from that point of view already. Now it's a little electric green.

#4 is very nice point of view and at the time I wondered what you were doing behind that bush.

In the rework, the dragon looks much more 3D and works well on it's own but I feel it's a little distracting/removed from the main subject matter...