Smoothing Water

[Warren]

Ok, so I tried to smooth the water here. My problem I think was that there was just too much sun. It was pretty much right in front of the camera, so, I had to try and edit in Photo Shop, and since my skills are no wheres near where I would like them, this is what you get.

Took this on a tri pod of course, using VR18-55 lens at 36mm using F/32 1.6s and .7EV under 200 Iso.

C&C welcomed

[Terry Tedor]

I can't quite tell what you intended the subject to be. There's lots of bit of grass and dead vegetation, but nothing really for the eyes to stop and linger on. The cutoff sticks in the creek are kind of a put off.

The water looks hot, but looking at the histogram, there are no clipped pixels. As a matter of fact, the histogram is pretty compressed, which would explain why the image looks flat.

What kind of software did you use to edit this and was it shot RAW or JPEG? I noticed there were lots of gaps in the histogram, which is usually not a good thing and is indicative of a lot of post processing adjustment on the histogram, probably to get the highlights under control.

[carregwen]

Warren

When you say there was too much sun, did you mean you wanted a longer exposure to get more of a milky flow to the water?

I do a lot of these and depending on the sun strength I use a polarizer as this reduces light by two stops and also reduces glare off the water. If that and a small aperture is not enough I add a neutral density filter (NOT a graduated one). This can reduce another two stops off your exposure. Ideally you want to get the right exposure length to get the water effect, but at the same time you want about f/11 to get the best out of the lens. Tricky! Also, try standing under some overhead branches as that will cut the light considerably. Go at early morning or late afternoon, but watch out for shadows. It's very difficult to get this type of shot right. Don't give up.

Have a look at mine - I just added them to my website... http://www.carregwenimages.com/section384041.html

[Radu Dinu Cordeanu]

Ok, so I tried to smooth the water here. My problem I think was that there was just too much sun. It was pretty much right in front of the camera, so, I had to try and edit in Photo Shop, and since my skills are no wheres near where I would like them, this is what you get.

Took this on a tri pod of course, using VR18-55 lens at 36mm using F/32 1.6s and .7EV under 200 Iso.

C&C welcomed

Hi,
I hope that help You:I flipped vertically then horizontally then skew was applied and a little liquify filter(12 min)
Cheers
Radu Dinu

[Terry Tedor]

Radu, it's upside down now?!

[carregwen]

Radu, it's upside down now?!

It's an NZ shot.

[Terry Tedor]

Ah, I see!

[Radu Dinu Cordeanu]

Radu, it's upside down now?!

Yes.
Radu Dinu

[Warren]

What kind of software did you use to edit this and was it shot RAW or JPEG?

I use Photo Shop Elements 8, and it was shot in Jpeg....I have not even tried to shoot raw as of yet....I am still trying to better understand basic photo shop tricks etc.

The subject for me was just the water....this was pretty much the only location where I could get enough of the water for the smoothing effect.

[rpcrowe]

Warren Have a look at mine - I just added them to my website... http://www.carregwenimages.com/section384041.html

Your flowing/falling water images are beautiful. Often photographers use too slow a shutter speed which produces a cotton-candy look to the water. Your images smooth out the water but, still provide a sense of motion.

[Terry Tedor]

I use Photo Shop Elements 8, and it was shot in Jpeg....I have not even tried to shoot raw as of yet....I am still trying to better understand basic photo shop tricks etc.

The subject for me was just the water....this was pretty much the only location where I could get enough of the water for the smoothing effect.

There's the rub though, editing jpegs to only turn around and save them as jpegs leads to a loss of image quality, often times quicker than you'd imagine.

May I suggest that if you're just starting out, build good solid work habits and a sound workflow first. Then concetrate on the "tricks, etc" as you call them. Shooting RAW is much preferred over shooting jpeg, assuming your camera can shoot RAW. I see now you're using a D5000, which is capable of RAW. PSE 8 will handle RAW quite nicely. You'll get much better results from the RAW files and in the long run you'll have a good solid foundation upon which to build.

One other thing you might want to keep in mind: it is easier to expose correctly in-camera than to rely on post processing to fix a poorly exposed image.