No ND Waterfall

[bambleweeney]

Orlu cascade in the Orlu valley (Ariege, France). I had an ND10 filter in my bag and took a shot of the fall using it. Horrible result, ND10 filters are good on lakes, skies and the sea but on the waterfall the effect was just too much. So, I set the shutter to about 1/50th and shot 10 frames hand held. Opened the images as layers in Photoshop and aligned them. Then set the first (bottom) one to 100% transparency and the rest to 11% with the result shown. Would maybe have been better if I'd used a tripod but even so my hands must have been pretty steady that day as I lost only a little of the image after aligning the shots.
What do you think ?

[royent]

I personally prefer water to look like water,
Sorry Roy

[Shadowman]

Nice exercise and capture of the surroundings.

[NorthernFocus]

What a lovely little fall. I like the composition and it looks like you achieved the desired effect on the water. Not sure what you were going for with the image but as a viewer the dynamic range is so great that all I see is the sunlit rock in left side of frame and the fall itself. In this sort of image I like to wander around and look at all of the details of the scene just as I would do if I was there in person. But the foreground and right side are to dark to do so.

[JohnRostron]

I personally prefer water to look like water,
Sorry Roy

I agree.

If you wanted to average the image in the stack, then you should set the opacities. The bottom one should be 100%, then the next up 90%, then 81%, then each one 90% of the previous one. Better, if you load the stack as a smart object, you can average the images in the stack. In Affinity Photo, of course, you can load the images into a stack, with alignment and have it calculate the mean, median, max ... or whatever you fancy.

John

[Geoff F]

I personally prefer water to look like water,
Sorry Roy

This sort of scene seems to get good results in competitions, etc; but personally, I agree with you.

[Stagecoach]

What do you think ?

You have a good result on the water and if that is the affect you were after you have achieved it.

Unfortunately the very harsh lighting in the area is causing the rest of the scene not to work too well. I'm wondering if toning down the rock area centre left would help?

Highlights area toned down and some shadow lifting.........a possibility, but I also like that shaft of light emphasised in your original.

[Manfred M]

I personally prefer water to look like water,
Sorry Roy

I've never ever understood this type of comment Roy. A photograph is static two-dimensional representation of a three dimensional, dynamic event. I hadn't realized there are rules / techniques associated with photographing moving water that makes it look more water like.

[NorthernFocus]

I personally prefer water to look like water,
Sorry Roy

I've never ever understood this type of comment Roy. A photograph is static two-dimensional representation of a three dimensional, dynamic event. I hadn't realized there are rules / techniques associated with photographing moving water that makes it look more water like.

While I am a fan of the slow shutter effect, a preference is a preference. And a perception is a perception. That's where the art aspect of photography comes in. Some of us prefer to "create images", some prefer to capture more documentary photographs. Perhaps the original comment could have been phrased more delicately. But so could opposing views.