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Hi everyone!

This is my first attempt shooting a little creatively. I haven't had my camera long and i've only done a tiny bit of point and shooting with it until now.

I've been reading Scott Kelby's Digital Photography books and today i noticed it was quite still and very overcast so i decided to try my luck with some waterfall shots. I started shooting at about 5pm.

Below are some examples. Please feel free to offer any comments or advice!

I think you would get a more lush feeling out of these if the greens were a little more pronounced.
Not over done mind just enhanced slightly.
Nice spot for an arvo out by the looks.

So how would i achieve that? BTW, they were all taken using my EF-S 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6 IS.

Lots of water for you at Snobs - last time I was there it was a mear trickle

Sure was.
I figured after all rain we've had here in the last week or so it would've been flowing quite nicely.

So how would i achieve that?

A circular Polariser Filter would do the trick in my opinion - 90% of my waterfall shots have used a CP, this removes reflected light which can benefit in two ways, firstly it can remove the reflections from the water hence giving more clarity to those lovely rocks and secondly it will give the effect of saturating colours, important for those greens. However, adjustment of the levels and curves coupled with contrast and saturation tweaks these could come alive to what Colin was referring to.

Pictures speak a thousand words so i took one of yours and tweaked it a little to see what could be done. If you have objections to this pm me and I will remove it.

On a side note, the thumbnails posted make it hard to review the images without leaving the site, maybe use a thumbnail a bit larger...



HTH

That looks better.
Thanks for the suggestion of the filter. I was aware of saturating and brighting things up in PS or Lightroom. Just didn't know how to achieve it from the camera.

I've changed the image links.

ohh yeah, those images are much easier to view!

the polariser is one the few filters which cannot be replicated in photochop of any other form of PP, hence why I have always ensure I have had one.

The colours in these images are a bit muted, were you shooting just raw format or jpeg?

Shot in raw format. These are jpegs copies.
It was late in the day and it's naturally quite dark at these falls due to to very steep hills either side.

I also love Scott Kelby's books- he's straight and to the point. I have his Digital Photography Books 1 and 2- there's plenty of stuff in them you can just jump right in and try straight away. They're easy to read and have loads of advice. This could actually make an interesting thread- "photography books I really like" ...oh and I like the images, especially number 2- it's a kind of 'in your face' waterfall shot- well done.

There's a 3rd in the series now. They've been helpful.
I'm currently reading Understanding Exposures.

I've re uploaded the images after turning the brightness and colour up a bit.

Tried my luck again with this, but this time i went to Trentham Falls...









I'm really happy with what i achieved with the last one. I might see what it looks like printed.

C&C appreciated!

last one is definately a winner

The second and the last look good for the latest posted Adam.

Thanks guys!

Now i've got Lightroom using the camera profiles the colors are much better.

These are a vast improvement on the last set, the second one is most striking for me, the exposure is spot on and the composition is different and interesting. The first appears alittle over exposed, maybe just due to the top section. On all of them I might suggest just backing off the saturation a fraction

That last one is a winner! The 2nd image is a bit too vibrant with the oranges and the greens looking a bit unnatural. Great to see you have been enjoying yourself!

Last one for me. The lead in of the stream to sky is well done. There is something about the second though....
Robert

I like the colours and the sky in the last one you have posted.

Thanks!

I might enter it in the photography competition at the local show and see how i do.

Revisted an old image from this set after doing a bit of reading on HDR processing...



(Made a much nicer looking website/watermark logo too).

Prefer the original over the reworked HDR version. The first had more of a muted and natural beauty, but the HDR looks overprocessed. I would tune down the saturation/vibrancy of the reworked.

Wink wrote:Revisted an old image from this set after doing a bit of reading on HDR processing...

this processing will appeal to some and not to others, at the end of the day its part of your learning process and thats important.

I prefer the original image, however see the merit in the recent version. It does however look like its been beaten over the head with the PP bat and I think going with the natural colours and vibrancy (which there appears to be abundancy of anyway) may result in a stroger image.

Wink wrote:(Made a much nicer looking website/watermark logo too).

looks alot less gumby (yes thats me saying I like it better than your old one) but then I don't really care for watermarks most of teh time

Thanks guys.
I'll pull the colour back and see if I can find a happy medium.

Adam, I also prefer the 1st version. Apart from removal of some of those mild halos, I reckon it's definitely printworthy. Very nice composition indeed!

The processed version doesn't seem to have increased the dynamic range much though? Looks like saturation and clarity type of adjustment.

Yeah. I've only got 2 exposures. One exposes the bush and the other exposes the sky, so I don't have the normal bracketed range of shots to play with.