The Falls

[purplehaze]

Further to the b&w of the boat I posted a while back, here are a few more from my very brief visit to Niagara Falls.

#1
I liked the contrast of the reds and the blues, but I didn't leave myself much room for correcting perspective.
[IMG]DSC_9476 - Version 2 by onesun1moon, on Flickr[/IMG]

#2
Not a great composition; colours perhaps a bit too intense?
[IMG]DSC_9502 - Version 2 by onesun1moon, on Flickr[/IMG]

#3
Don't know what I was shooting here: the rainbow or the landscape. Didn't really have a chance to compose carefully, though, as I had to keep one eye on my companions, who don't have much respect for my creative process and are always walking away from me and losing themselves in the crowd.
[IMG]DSC_9512 - Version 2 by onesun1moon, on Flickr[/IMG]

#4
Okay, we know this one is about the boat.
[IMG]DSC_9517 - Version 2 by onesun1moon, on Flickr[/IMG]

#5
This one is about the rainbow. Definitely the rainbow.
[IMG]DSC_9527 - Version 2 by onesun1moon, on Flickr[/IMG]

#6
Maybe the wind blew the litter there. Probably not, but that would be the more generous thought, right?
[IMG]DSC_9553 - Version 2 by onesun1moon, on Flickr[/IMG]

#7
I was cursing the mist most of the time, but it made for some interesting contrast here.
[IMG]DSC_9577 - Version 2 by onesun1moon, on Flickr[/IMG]

#8
My study suggests that roughly one in four visitors to the falls views them without the benefit of an artificial lens.
[IMG]DSC_9580 by onesun1moon, on Flickr[/IMG]

#9
This was a better shot a few seconds before I actually pressed the shutter.
[IMG]DSC_9605 - Version 2 by onesun1moon, on Flickr[/IMG]

#10
At one point, the rainbow was double. You can see a hint of it here.
[IMG]DSC_9539 - Version 2 (1) by onesun1moon, on Flickr[/IMG]

#11
I didn't do my homework and had no idea how to shoot the water. So I made a kind of abstract.
[IMG]DSC_9555 by onesun1moon, on Flickr[/IMG]

C&C welcome.

[Stagecoach]

Good set Janis, clear, good colour and I like the abstract No 11

[Shadowman]

Nice series.
#!, perspective is the least of your troubles, just incorporating that tree into the image is enough of a chore.
#2, nice enough composition, inclusion of the flags helps break up the tree line.
#3, as a tourist I'd be concentrating on the rainbow, it's a really interesting phenomenon.
#9, one of the best of the bunch.

[FrankMi]

Hi Janis, I have a couple of thoughts that hopefully you'll be interested in. If not, I'll pull the edits if you prefer.

1. Great lighting with the shadows defining the curve of the building. For me, the tree is not a problem but a little less exposure might have brought out the a little more interesting sky detail. Pretty much anytime you have the sky in an image, the sky tends to be overexposed or the subject tends to be underexposed. I pretty much shoot all scenes with sky with a bracketed exposure (as long is the subject isn't moving) for that reason.

In this case I reset the White and Black points in Adobe Camera Raw to widen the exposure range without clipping in the histogram. I then duplicated the image, dropped the brightness of copy one stop then blended the sky back in. Lastly, I increased the vibrance of the sign at the top of the building a bit.



2. Although I'm a big fan of national flags, I think in this case, particularly owing to the predominantly red colours that tend to grab the eye, I would not have included them here. The sky is nicely exposed but for my view, the blue is cooling the rest of the scene so I warmed up the subject just a bit and left the sky as it was.



You have a number of very pleasant images here but the one that really stands out because it is so unusual is #9. If at all possible, that one would be worth trying to capture again. It would be a good candidate as is to clone out the bus, delicately increase the saturation on the rainbow, and try to cut some of the haze above the rainbow with some increased LCE. Hope this helps!

[purplehaze]

Thanks, Grahame.

John, what I meant about #1 was, I would have liked to include more of the tree with the turned leaves, but I did not shoot wide enough and this is the crop I was left with after doing perspective correction in PTLens.

Frank, I like your edits; thanks. You exactly fixed the things that were bothering me in #1, and I rather think I might have done them myself if I had only taken it into Viveza. And thanks for the tip about LCE; I have been struggling mightily with the problem of the haze. No chance of a re-shoot of #9 any time soon, though, as I live a couple of thousand miles away.

[Rebel]

Great shots Janis, some good compositions, colours in there.

[purplehaze]

Thanks, Matt.

[bnnrcn]

+1 to Matt's comment

[Cananeer]

Janis
Great captures!!! I really like #2 Outstanding - #3 Exceptional it tells a story and #6 one can hear the sounds of the water here!!!

[purplehaze]

Thanks, Binnur and Roger. Interesting you should mention #6, Roger, as I was waiting for someone to call me on my cheat. I didn't like the texture of the water at the top of the frame, and so I used the motion blur tool in Analog Efex Pro 2 to smooth it out. It was my first time using the tool and I was thinking my effort looked pretty amateurish. Perhaps everyone is too polite to mention, but go ahead, I can take it.

[deetheturk]

Very nice Janis, well captured

[AlwaysOnAuto]

I think the water looks more natural in #11 than #6.
All nice shots though.

[purplehaze]

I agree, AOA; thanks for your feedback.

[Ziggy]

My pick is #6 but clone out the cups.

[purplehaze]

I don't know that the image will hold much interest for me without the cups, Jim, as I see it as more documentary than anything else. But I will maybe give it a try; thanks for commenting.