while we're on waterfalls ...

[darb]

A couple of mine. The biggest problem I've been finding is dynamic range, in that i end up blowing too much of the water motion if i try to get a nice bright fore and surrounds.

Does anyone have techniques for improving that? The other issue was a bright sky, which i could get around by cropping it out of the frame, but that would lead to the start of the waterfall being right at the top of the frame, which doesnt look very good !

beauchamp falls ;



erskine falls ;

[Sean]

Hey Darb they are terrific, what sort of lens did you have on? and what were your settings? (if you don't mind)

Hey thanks for your comments too on my shots from today, I have pp them a bit more & updated them, could learn a lot from you no doubt.

Going back there to another spot where they are much bigger (fingers crossed)

Cheers mate

Sean

[darb]

** OK, both them show "shutter priority" .. i know they were manual, or at least Aperture priority ... any ideas anyone ???

hey sean ... mate im no pro! just love it

I was using my crappy Tamron 28-300mm. Had a Hoya Circular Polariser + Cokin GRAD ND GRAY at full "tilt" so it was acting effectively as a full blown ND. (coupled with the CPL slows the photo down heaps.)

2nd one was just a CPL ... quite late in the day. First one was at like midday. (date and time was wrong on my camera.)

first image (im suprised i was in shutter priority mode actually!)

EXIF Data
File size : 3006256 bytes
File date : 2005:03:21 23:26:31
Camera make : NIKON CORPORATION
Camera model : NIKON D70
Date/Time : 2005:03:14 09:55:15
Resolution : 3008 x 2000
Flash used : No
Focal length : 28.0mm (35mm equivalent: 42mm)
Exposure time : 6.000 s
Aperture : f/20.0
ISO equiv. : 200
Whitebalance : Manual
Metering Mode : matrix
Exposure prog : shutter priority (semi-auto)
Jpeg process : Baseline
Comment : Copyright - Darb Photography.




Second Image ;

EXIF Data
File size : 2603633 bytes
File date : 2005:03:23 16:17:30
Camera make : NIKON CORPORATION
Camera model : NIKON D70
Date/Time : 2005:03:14 15:07:24
Resolution : 1891 x 2837
Flash used : No
Focal length : 46.0mm (35mm equivalent: 69mm)
Exposure time : 6.000 s
Aperture : f/25.0
ISO equiv. : 200
Whitebalance : Manual
Metering Mode : matrix
Exposure prog : shutter priority (semi-auto)
Jpeg process : Baseline
Comment : Copyright - Darb Photography.

[big pix]

have you tried a grad grey filter for the sky........or polariser sometimes helps or both

big pix

[darb]

yep ... was already using CPL and Grad ND to quell teh sky, still way bright ... in one circumstance though i was using the grad ND as a full ND to slow the shot down. (middle of the day.)

[BBJ]

I have heard or read that a lot of people use an ND filter for this type of picture. Neuteral Density might help it Darb, but yeh i have never done any but seen a lot of people who have al mention these.
Cheers
John
BBJ PS: oops too late lol didnt see other post.

[darb]

cheers ... was already using CPL backed onto a Grad ND mate ... guess the problem is the overbearing gap of sunlight into the otherwise fairly dark valley ... unstoppable DR blowout. (could pile a bunch of grand ND's up, but then you "black out" the top of the image. Need a different time of day i guess!

[Sean]

Yeah Darb you will be guarenteed the right light conditions twice a day (its just a matter of time and how long your prepared to wait, its proberly cheaper too)

Interesting to read about all the effort you have been going too with these filters. At this stage of my photography I haven't picked one up - yet!

Will look into it

Cheers mate

Sean PS I have the 28-300 Tamaron too

[mudder]

The shot of Erskine falls is great... I like waterfall shots and I'm hoping to spend a few days at the end of July down the Otways so now you've got me all gee'd up...

[Matt. K]

Darb
One trick is to make 3 different exposures at about 2 stops apart. Need to be done from a tripod. Then copy and paste onto each other as 3 layers and rub through, (using the erasor) to reveal the parts you want to keep. Then flatten the layers. This is the only way I know of vastly extending the dynamic range of an image. A bit of messing around but capable of supurb results.
Another way is alter the exposure in Nikon Editor 3 times and paste each layer together to try and achieve the same thing.

[darb]

yeah thats a good idea matt ... cheers

[mudder]

I recently tried blending different exposures and an easy way I like is:
1) open both
2) when viewing the dark exposure, ^A (select all) then ^C (copy)
3) view the light one
4) paste into the light one (becomes a new layer)
5) make the pasted layer active
6) add a layer mask (click the icon that looks like a camera from the front)
7) Alt-click the mask
paste the same clipboard into the mask (should now get a B&W image)
9) Then just make the light (background) layer active, presto!

Think I got that from one of the common sites but it's a really easy and quick way to blend images... Use it heaps, then you can go to the mask and clean up if you wish...

Just watch out for foliage movment between exposures, or just expose the same image different using EV settings from the NEF...

Hope it's helpful to someone... (Hope the procedure's right, works for me) and saves manual erasing...

Cheers PS. edited... hmmm 8 followed by right bracket = doh!