Uvas Canyon Park (+ small Waterfalls )

[ajith.rajeswari]

Today I visited Uvas Canyon Park in California to catch some "small" waterfalls ..I did a couple of shots but not so happy with my results.. (esp with the waterfall pic)
Bad comments with improvement suggestions are much appreciated
Taken with Nikon D200 + 18-200VR, + Nikon CP filter , Curve adjusted using GIMP
Pic #1

Pic#2

Pic#3

Pic#4

Pic#5



Thanks
Ajith

[ajith.rajeswari]

In pic#3 though the WB was 6000°K the water color is light blue which looks to me WB was wrong..
Was 8000K more appropriate?
Any waterfall experts here ?

[Colin Southern]

To my eye the greens are significantly oversaturated. It might just be the way you like them (as I do see them done like this quite often) but, personally, I feel it detracts from the realism of the scene.

In terms of colour temperature, easiest thing to do is to simply use the water as a neutral reference starting point, and go from there. I often err slightly on the blue side, but not much.

Here's a wee rework I did for you (adj colour temperature - Adj saturation - Adj Levels - burn washed out sect at top through trees and desaturated the water with the sponge tool). Levels probably made the biggest difference - with images like this if you bring your white clipping point in to where it just touches the histogram, it'll look too flat - generally I bring it 10 to 15 levels into the histogram so that anything 10 to 15 levels down is taken to pure white.

[Roxy]

Although unable to add to Colin's tech advice I might say his rework dealt well with the greens; I agree with his opinion that in your submissions, the greens are "overcooked"
Is this how they came out of the camera or after some PP by yourself?
Apart from the green, the pictures are well composed and clearly show you chose and set up well for the location

RR

[Dave Humphries]

Hi Ajith,

It looks like a lovely peaceful place to be.
Waterfalls in forests like this, in my limited experience, usually are an (initial) dis-appointment.
The human eye is very good at coping with the contrast range, auto WB and concentrating on the subject.

I would definitely go with Colin's suggestion to re-WB all shots (with eye dropper) on the frothy water, as the viewer will expect this to be 'white' and also his advice to setting the white clip point (after the WB).

The shots you have posted work well as documentary images of your visit, but in terms of being good, standalone photographic images for other viewers, possibly they just include too much in some cases.
Here are my 'Bad' comments with suggestions.

From what I can see of these, I would re-crop as follows;
#1; Make left edge of frame to just exclude the sign, possibly take a little off the right side too.
#2; The bridge is the subject, so take the lighter coloured rock off the right side and another 10% off the bottom
#3; composition is fine, but I do find the clumpy root thing in lower right corner distracting
#4; I'm not sure what the subject is, photogenically the man made thing with the pipe across the top and a gap to let the water through isn't that interesting and it's a bit too centred IMHO. I think I'd take 25 - 30% off the left side, excluding the out of focus foreground foliage
#5; It was obviously quite dark and damp in this corner, I can't suggest a way to improve the composition, perhaps it would work better with more shadow detail. As it's so mono-tone and high contrast, I'd almost suggest a monochrome conversion, but I'm not sure the subject would suit that.

As far as I can see from the quite small pics, you've done a good job taking your time and (I assume) using a tripod, got nice water effect in them and also not getting any other visitors in the back of the shots. It was well worth that effort and I can see a distinct improvement in the quality of your work here from when you first joined - in fact, that you recognise these don't quite 'work' demonstrates how far you've come, well done.

I hope the above comments help,

[ajith.rajeswari]

To my eye the greens are significantly oversaturated. It might just be the way you like them (as I do see them done like this quite often) but, personally, I feel it detracts from the realism of the scene.

Although unable to add to Colin's tech advice I might say his rework dealt well with the greens; I agree with his opinion that in your submissions, the greens are "overcooked"
Is this how they came out of the camera or after some PP by yourself?RR

Hi Colin, Rox, rustyshutter
Thanks for your suggestions.
You are right about the green, my default color setting in the camera is always Vivid so that is the reason .

rustyshutter - Thanks for the encouraging words

Here is the same pic (Pic#3)straight out of the camera.

Please find the detailed exif below.
Camera: Nikon D200
Exposure: 9
Aperture: f/16.0
Focal Length: 24 mm
Focal Length: 24.5 mm
ISO Speed: 100
Exposure Bias: -1/3 EV
Flash: No Flash
Software: Ver.2.00
Date and Time (Modified): 2009:02:07 10:48:31
YCbCr Positioning: Co-sited
Exposure Program: Aperture-priority AE
Metering Mode: Multi-segment
Light Source: Cloudy
Exposure Mode: Auto
White Balance: Manual
Focal Length In35mm Format: 36 mm
Scene Capture Type: Standard
Contrast: High
Saturation: High
Sharpness: Hard
ISO: 100
Color Mode: Color
Quality: Fine
White Balance: Cloudy
Sharpness: High
Focus Mode: AF-S
Flash Setting: Normal
Image Optimization: More Vivid
Saturation: Enhanced
High ISONoise Reduction: Off

[Yan Zhang]

Ajith,

Nice to see these photos.

pic #4 and #5 look very good. For pic #5, would it be better to use a polarizing filter to eliminate the water reflection on rocks? I don't have a polarizing filter, but have read some articles about its function for that. Maybe others have such experiences.

[ajith.rajeswari]

Ajith,

Nice to see these photos.

pic #4 and #5 look very good. For pic #5, would it be better to use a polarizing filter to eliminate the water reflection on rocks? I don't have a polarizing filter, but have read some articles about its function for that. Maybe others have such experiences.

Thanks Yan. I did use the CP filter for the shot, the reflection was worst in the real scene. I am not sure about the rotation angle of the CP filter I kept for the shot though.

~Ajith