Leura Cascades

[smison]

Hey guys, first post so here goes:

This was taken at Leura Cascades in the Blue Mountains.. if I could take it again I'd go on a sunny day, it was quite overcast which blew out the top right of the photo.. still it gives it a sort of eerie feeling so maybe not all is lost any tips for what I could have done better here?




cascade by smison, on Flickr

[gstark]

Hi Stephen, and welcome.

I've taken the liberty of editing your post slightly, so that the image displays.

I quite like the overexposure at the top/background area, and I think that you were actually lucky to have "suffered" an overcast day when you shot this.

Consider that, were it sunny, that area would probably have been even brighter and more difficult to capture. Frequently, overcast conditions are amongst the best for making photographs.

[Remorhaz]

Consider that, were it sunny, that area would probably have been even brighter and more difficult to capture. Frequently, overcast conditions are amongst the best for making photographs.

and really overcast means you can naturally use longer shutter speeds which is good for the silky water effect

[biggerry]

The top corner is blown out, hence I would use this to your advantage, i think a small crop from the top and right to bring that bright spot right into the corner and a slight bump in the contrast and you have a fine and dandy image.

heres what I reckon, there is also a very slight tilt adjustment since it just felt crooked to me.

if you want it removed just let me know.

[smison]

Thank Gary, not quite sure why the photos aren't appearing correctly.. I'm copying the BBcode as per Mr Darcy's tips on the 52 Frames post.. let me know what I'm doing wrong and I'll correct..

Thanks for the crop and adjustment Gerry, it was level at the site but looks much better slightly rotated. Blown out section looks better with the way it's been cropped too.. cheers

[Mr Darcy]

I made comments on the photo elsewhere, so I won't repeat them here (Gary you may like to move my relevant post in the 52/3 thread to this one)
EDIT. The cut and paste doesn't quite do the same thing. SOme of the code you used desn't show, but the concept is sound. Just post what Flickr gives you, and don't add any extra tags.
I didn't want to clutter up that thread with full details of posting an image, but I will here as I notice you haven't mastered it yet. It took me a while too
What you posted (from the "Animal" thread)

Code: Select all

[img][img]http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7002/6707564445_9b155c3d30.jpg[/img]
eye on the game by smison, on Flickr[/img]

this produces:
[img][img]http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7002/6707564445_9b155c3d30.jpg[/img]
eye on the game by smison, on Flickr[/img]

What you need to post:

Code: Select all

[img]http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7002/6707564445_9b155c3d30.jpg[/img]
eye on the game by smison, on Flickr

This produces:

eye on the game by smison, on Flickr

Note that Flickr supplies the tags for you, so you don't have to add them again. If you do, the image doesn't appear correctly. Gary (gstark) has fixed up your image here, and Shaun (bigRed) has fixed up Animal and Nautical, so just keep it in mind for the future.

Now to this photo.
Like Gary, I quite like the blown highlights to this. As you say, it adds to the eerie mood. And they would be worse, much worse on a sunny day
This is one of the waterfalls in the Vallley of the Waters on a sunny day.. Note that the falls are badly blown while the rocks and foliage are so dark, most of the detail is lost.


This is the same waterfall about two weeks later, this time on a cloudy day.
There is detail in the water, rocks and foliage.


Yes it lacks a little oomph, but these are straight out of the camera. I can easily tweak the second to add some sparkle, but the first is probably irretrievable. Mind you, it is not a total loss. I use a similar photo as my screen wallpaper. The dark areas are great places to place stuff so it doesn't get lost..

If you wanted to reduce the dark/light contrast in your photo above, you could have done it in camera by using a graduated neutral density filter. You could achieve a similar result in post by applying a graduated adjustment across the picture, making the top darker and getting progressively lighter as you go down. It is easy to do in lightroom, and probably in Photoshop, though I have never tried there. BUT you need to start with a RAW image so you have the information to get back. With a jpeg you will probably end up with a grey blob if you try it.

Another thing you can try is to take multiple photos of the one scene at different exposures. Then you can take the bits you want from each image and stitch them together to get a more pleasing overall image. The technique is called HDR. Photoshop CS5 has an automated tool for this purpose built in. THere are also several stand alone tools to do the job too.

I would suggest you try shooting RAW exclusively. It gives you many advantages and very few disadvantages. You will fill up youur cards quicker, but they are cheap these days, and you won't be able to fire quite as big bursts. I don't know your camera, but on my Nikon D200, I can shoot pretty well indefinitely in burst mode if I am using jpeg, but only get about 20 shots before the camera starts to slow down. Still that is more than enough for my purposes.