Please use this gamma strip to calibrate your monitor. You should see 20 shades from pure black to pure white:

I shot this last weekend, almost as an exercise in problem solving. The normal view of this falls, that everyone shoots, is boring to me, and, there was also the problem of direct sunlight. So after I did some abstract pattern shots, I walked around to "the other" side of the falls to this view, which most people simply walk past.

Equipment: 24mm lens, T90, f22 and be there, Velvia

Keith

http://www.spiritone.com/~kclark/

-- Keith Clark (ClarkPhotography@spiritone.com), July 28, 1998

Answers

I'm not terribly keen on how the bottom of the waterfall is cropped or how the highlights on the leaves are blown out. The dark tree trunk (esp. at the base) is also troublesome.

On the upside, I like the peacefulness conveyed by this image. Pat yourself on the back from wandering away from the tripod holes of others. Maybe a 7.

-- Sean Yamamoto (seany@altavista.net), July 28, 1998.

I just showed this picture to my family and they said "Ooooooo." I thought I was at the 4th of July fireworks... :) I agree with them. I think this shot has great initial impact. All the different compositional elements come together. This is surprising given the complexity of the photograph. Great job.

-- Chris Hawkins (peace@clover.net), July 28, 1998.

It's certainly one of the nicer waterfall pictures I have seen. I like how the green of the upper rigth corner is repeated (in small) in the lower left.

A curious observation about the grey-strip: On my monitor, exactly every third square has a green tint to it, the others are (very slightly) magenta tinted. Is that my monitor???

-- (andreas@physio.unr.edu), July 29, 1998.

Thanks for the comments so far. :>

It was intented to evoke a feeling of peace and serenity and express the the awe that I feel when viewing nature.

Yes the cropping was a conscious compromise. But from that angle there is simply no way to show more of the bottom. And it's the only angle to shoot the tree from. A compromise, as I said. :> Everyone knows what a waterfall hitting a plunge pool looks like...the uniqueness of this one is the patterns on the rocks that make it so wonderfull.

Andreas: I changed the gamma strip from an indexed color to a grayscale GIF file in Photoshop just now and re-posted it to the server. If you still see a tinge, it may be time for a tune-up. ;>

Keith

-- Keith Clark (ClarkPhotography@spiritone.com), July 29, 1998.

Good shot! I love the shape of the waterfall hitting the rocks. But then again photographing waterfalls is one of my favorite endeavors so I4m biased. :) However having said that, the one problem I have with the pic is as you4ve guessed it, the contrast range. The highlights are a little blown out and the dark areas are black which takes something away from the overall impact. However as you4ve stated, everything is a compromise so you do the best with what you can. Good photo though!!

-- Daryl Larkin (tuuk@supernews.com), July 29, 1998.

About that slight green/magenta tint Andreas is seeing - it's not his monitor, nor the greyscale image itself. It's his video card. It is running in 16 bit mode (64k colors). In this mode one color (green, AFAIK) gets one more bit than the others, i.e. bits are split between RGB channels as 5/6/5. This results in greys that are not neutral. To fix it, switch your card to 24 bit mode, or if it does support it, to 15 bit mode.

As for the image, I like it in a quiet sort of way. There is a problem with cropping and blown-owt highlights, but I suppose it coul not be helped...

-- Andrei Frolov (andrei@phys.ualberta.ca), July 29, 1998.

Its a fine image and given the difficult lighting, you made the right decision on letting the unimportant highlights go out rather than having the dark details get lost.

There are times when fitting an image into the fine print straightjacket of "detail in all highlights and shadows" is inappropriate, this is one of them.

Frank

-- Frank Kolwicz (bb389@lafn.org), July 29, 1998.