Waterfall

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Canon Elan IIe Fuji Super HG Plus


-- Brian S. Dunworth (brian@homes.com), August 26, 1998

Answers

Very nice composition and exposure of the water.

The sun reflections off the rocks are distracting, and create too much exposure range for the film (even the print film used here) to handle. There are some blown out highlights and lack of detail in the shadows (for example, the rocks in the upper, center). Sun reflections off wet rocks are a difficult problem to handle, usually resolved by trying different perspectives. You would like the rocks to be wet because they are darker than dry ones, and blend into the background. Unfortunately, sun reflecting off a wet rock is brighter than the reflection off a dry one.

The best weather conditions for shooting waterfalls is clouds, and/or rain. The clouds reduce the exposure range from highlights to shadows, to within the exposure latitude of slide film, and the rain dampens the rocks to remove highlights from dry rocks.

-- Joe Boyd (boydjw@traveller.com), August 26, 1998.


indeed, a very nice piece of work, handling a potentially trite composition very well. further, i must say that the film *was* able to handle the wet rock contrast satisfactorily. now, the "constructive criticism": i have spent a great deal of time in the north carolina mtns, fishing for trout, among countless scenes similar to this. and never once has my mind's eye experienced the flowing water as cotton candy. it has always looked like cellophane, to me. that is, i think the most effective rendition of moving water, fast moving water, is with a higher shutter speed. again, i am aware that i may be in the minority on this; and the comment is not meant to detract from this particular image. just my .02, as they say.

a. wayne harrison

-- wayne harrison (wayno@netmcr.com), August 26, 1998.


Excellent composition and effect. I hope the stationary rocks are much sharper in your original print than on my computer monitor. It might be worthwhile to try many diferent exposure times for the flowing water but I really like the look of this one.

-- (andreas@physio.unr.edu), August 27, 1998.

I very much like feel of this photo. I believe softer lighting and the resultant greater detail in the shadows & highlights would detract from the abstract quality of the image.

-- Chris Hawkins (peace@clover.net), August 27, 1998.

Thanks for the comments thus far...

If memory serves, this image was about a 10 second exposure (at ASA 100). I have another, similar shot exposed on Velvia (at ASA 50) nearer to 20 seconds where the partial cloud cover cooperated more completely during the exposure.

The rocks in the print (and, for that matter, on the chromes) have much more detail than I was able to capture on my scanner at home. I should (hopefully) get better scans from the chromes and I'll post some of those images here in the future.

Wayne -- I can't say I disagree with you... I've felt the same way before, but after posting such an image here last year, the overwhelming opinion was for longer exposure and "softer" water. It does create a mood (and, for that matter, a different picture!) than a shorter exposure... and I'm still training my mind's eye to "see" these types of images when I look through the viewfinder.



-- Brian S. Dunworth (brian@homes.com), August 27, 1998.


The very pleasing monochromatic tone of the image ties it all together well. As to the framing it works for me with the exception of the left edge. I took the liberty of quickly cropping it just a bit to remove the parts that "felt" like they shouldn't be there to me. Cropped

-- Don Carter (carter-graphics@pobox.com), August 29, 1998.

I was hesitent to critique this image because I couldn't put my finger on what was bothering me about it. That is until Don Carter posted a cropped version. In his cropped version, I get a better feeling of depth since the stream forms a more prominent diagonal going from left to right then from the center to right.

-- Paul Lenson (lenson@pci.on.ca), August 31, 1998.

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