Boulder Falls

Hi Derek,

A photograph of a beautiful place. On my monitor, which is calibrated, the water appears to be blown out (without texture).

I noticed your fstop and shutter speed and I wonder why you stopped down to that small of lens aperture. This is question arises for me due to the left foreground foliage being out of focus. If you were wanting the small fstop to carry sharpness throughout the image, it would appear that you focused on the wrong plane of the image. Hyperfocal distance extends 1/3 in front of the point of focus and 2/3 to the rear of the point of focus.

Normally, I like to photograph moving water with a shutter speed of 1/8 to 1/4 second. Of course the longer shutter speed does lead to a more homogenous appearance to the flowing water.

Thus, for me, I would have opted to move the camera position to the right or flattened the foreground foliage. I would have opened the lens to F16 and exposed the image for 1/8 or 1/4 second (this would have taken the exposure out of reciprocity considerations).

This is what I would have done in this situation. Of course your interpertation of the scene may and should, if warranted, differ from mine.

Donald,
Wow, thank you for the detailed critique! Looking at it I should have moved the foliage out of the way with my hand. It was only about 6 inches away from me. Yes I was trying to achieve a sharp image but that weed got in my way. I wasn't really thinking about getting texture in the water but that is something for me to think about next time. I will bracket for it to see what I get.

Thanks again Donald

D.

Derek: this is a lovely waterfall photograph. I have to agree with Donald, though, that the out of focus foilage in the foreground is distracting. Have you considered cropping the left side of the photograph to just cut the foilage out? Or even a little more into a square? I don't believe that anything important would be lost.

Thanks Dan, I was thinking the same thing. I will chase this one in the darkroom and crop out the plants on the left to see how it works. I will make another trip up there too, for another try.

D.

The rock detail and the light captured is great. I think that often water loses the effect of its force if it is made to look too much like cotton wool. I'd would have preferrred some semblance of gushing water which this loses at this exposure.

pentaxuser

photography a lot interesting, sin the leaves not focusing and the water too much white does not texture creed that you could on out cut to the leaves and the high part over the water so as to to remove the leaves hello my personal judgment