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Brian G's picture

Twins

This was a difficult location. The plunge pool is right on a sidewalk which is right on a road. It is difficult to get the depth that would work for this image. The falls are beautiful but it's almost impossible to capture the entire scene. Please feel free to critique. I'm sure there is something I'm missing.

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2 Comments

I can see your difficulty Brian, with some areas in sun and some in shade. This is especially true of the waterfalls themselves - one in sun and one in shade.

I try to take my waterfall images when it is overcast to prevent this sort of issue, due to the vast dynamic range the only other option I can think of is to take multiple exposures to capture darks + lights and trying to blend (could be a nightmare).

I would suggest you plan to revisit when conditions are better suited.
Otherwise/also, look for the opportunity to take more intimate shots that may be better suited to the lighting conditions. Instead of shooting the whole think of the interesting parts - eg the fall on the left is in shade, the smaller falls below have interest. etc

On the image as-is I feel your exposure on the waterfalls is a bit too long. You have wonderful silky lines in the smaller falls at the bottom but a lot of the interesting flow detail is lost in the main falls, especially the one on the right.
I always perform test shots to set optimum exposure from the histogram and (aperture priority) from there takes shots with varying speeds around where I think the most interesting flow is seen.
If you use an ND filter you may have to set your focus to manual after taking your test shot. A 10 stop not only lets in so little light that you can't see the image but auto-focus will hunt trying to find a suitable focus point.

Your image is a good attempt and I hope this helps - taking good shots of waterfalls relies is very technical and the best advice I can give is to keep experimenting and learning.

Thank you for the critique. It is all spot on.