Guam waterfalls, C&C welcome!

[bowneracing99]

Some waterfalls we hiked to... Please let me know how i could better them!





I tried to shoot from farther away, but the jungle was much to dense!
Tarzan falls, Guam

[Clive Kirby]

Looks like a great location - I bet it took a lot of effort to get there.
Shot 1. Perhaps a lower angle with more of the jungle beyond.
Shot 2+3. The tree gets in the way and distracts from the waterfall. It's not very often that Nature is kind enough to arrange a location so that a photographer can get an ideal shot.
Shot 4. I like this. Nicely composed. Just enough movement blur to give the sense of water flow, but still retain a lot of detail.
Shame the jungle got in your way, but I think this shot makes all the effort worthwhile.
regards
Clive

[bowneracing99]

Thanks clive, I was trying so hard not to shake on #4 there must be 25 of those on my card! Shot one i totally agree, it fell kind of flat with me as well. Ill post it un-cropped see if that makes it any better...


Also, is there a way to avoid the sky being so over exposed? Or should i worry about it in pp, example;

[davidedric]

Also, is there a way to avoid the sky being so over exposed? Or should i worry about it in pp, example;

Hi Tyler,

There are many more better PP'rs than I on this site. However, depending on software, there are a number of ways you could tackle the sky - depending on how much effort you want to put in too. You could isolate just the sky, but to me it looks as if all the top of the image is over-exposed. So I used Lightroom to put a graduated ND filter across the top of the image to darken it a little. I just made one or two more tweaks, in just two or three minutes. I'm re-posting here, hope that's OK, and I hope it gives an idea.

Dave

[Polar01]

Tyler: with a really blown out sky, I have found the best thing is not not include it if possible, so go for a tighter composition. Sometimes you have to just work with what you have been given or leave and come back another day.

Cheers:

Allan

[davidedric]

Tyler can speak for himself, but if I'd just slogged through jungle (which as it happens I have done a few times) I'd want to make the most of whatever I'd got

[Clive Kirby]

Tyler
I've tried photographing from the top of High Force in England, and apart from it not being such an effort to get to, my results were no better. It was only afterwards I thought of a lower angle, but I haven't been back yet to try it out. The only other thing I though of was photographing across the falls from the edge - a bit dodgy.
Re the sky. You could try a grad filter. I haven't got one so I would have taken a lot of images of different exposures, varying from the sky being nicely exposed to the exposure in no 2 shot. This would give you the opportunity to try to blend layers to improve the shot. With my lack if experience it would be a bit hit and miss, but at least if you've taken the shots while you're on location you can play with them at your leisure.
regards
Clive

[wtlwdwgn]

Some good replies from the responders. First, congratulations on making a jungle hike and bringing back some good photographs. When taking slow shutter speed images you really need support of some kind. A tripod can be a pain to carry when hiking but a good, light one might have helped with the shaking. That's if you could find a place to out the feet! It would have allowed you to play around with exposure and EV settings. With a bright sky you can add an EV stop or so to compensate as the camera's light meter won't give the proper exposure. The other alternative is to shoot 3 to 5 frames at different exposures and then blend them in software afterwards (HDR). And then when you post your images put an extra line between them to separate them so they don't run into each other. Just my ¢¢.

[bowneracing99]

I really like it edited with the graduated filter! I was kicking myself in the tail for not having my tripod. And although fun i wasnt going to trudge back through that day, but i do want to go back in with a graduated nd filter, or shoot from a lower angle. All of you had some really good input... I hope I'm able to come up with help like you guys for someone in the future!!!

[pnodrog]

It is not to difficult to drop a sky in. Get yourself a library of sky shots you have taken and use them when you have to. That way you can concentrate on getting the exposure correct for the waterfall - if anything under expose a little which will help with a sky but not usually enough. I have done a quick demo below.

Library sky placed on new layer. Switch to original layer and select sky area. Go back to sky layer and make layer mask with selection. Set layer blend to darken and then adjust opacity until it all looks right to you.

[bowneracing99]

It is not to difficult to drop a sky in. Get yourself a library of sky shots you have taken and use them when you have to. That way you can concentrate on getting the exposure correct for the waterfall - if anything under expose a little which will help with a sky but not usually enough. I have done a quick demo below.

Library sky placed on new layer. Switch to original layer and select sky area. Go back to sky layer and make layer mask with selection. Set layer blend to darken and then adjust opacity until it all looks right to you.

This is great, I'm not fully versed in LR4 yet, do i need an add on, or does LR have layers available.

[pnodrog]

Sorry you can not do that with LR4 it was done with photoshop. However there are some free photo editing programmes that will handle layers and layer masks that can be used in conjunction with LR4. Unfortunately they do not integrate with LR4 as well as photoshop CS6. Photoshop elements could also be used.