Water fall

[armando_m]

About 10 miles north of the city, 150 m (450 ft) height

I wanted to do a longer exposure, it was very cloudy when I left home, but the clouds opened a bit for the sun an the best I could do was about 1/30.

Shot from a park with an overlook

Water is contaminated with city sewage

Camera leaned heavily to make it fit, avoid a large lamp, cables, railing ...

Is this to dark ?

[GB1]

Armando, Nice that you have a waterfall so close by, even if it's contaminated. One cannot tell that from looking at the photo, which is good..

I do think it is too dark, but there's something else a little off about it, too .. perhaps there's too much contrast, as the vegetation esp the top center trees, looks too dark. But although you got the water OK (the tilt throws me a little, but it's OK), the actually area around the waterfall isn't that pretty, and the rocks at the bottom look almost industrial. Not sure what else you could do besides look for a completely different angle, maybe from the bottom?

GB

[daq7]

Not too dark in general, but some highlights in the water in the fall itself would help. The water at the bottom is very bright as it is.

[Dubbs5050]

interesting perspective....looks like a good subject to go back and play around with, maybe in less harsh light. I would love to see the time elapse for the waterfalls sake, but I like the ridges in the water below.

[armando_m]

GB1,
Light was harsh, played with this at PP and ended up with a lot of contrast, shooting from below would be quite an adventure just to get down there, and would have to be from far away, getting wet with sewage spray is not in my list of wishes

Daq, Agree the "water" at the bottom can be toned down , it is mostly foam

Dubbs,
I'm looking for a farther away location where this can be shot, so I do not depend on the time when the park is open (10AM)

Here is another angle, a bit farther, still inside the park


One more thing, both images were shot with a circular polarizer, camera on a tripod, triggered by time, the filter is a nikon, and the results are somewhat soft, impossible to tell at this resolution, but I can definitively see it at 100% crop, I brought planning to do a somewhat long exposure ... didn't help as it is only about 1 stop of light reduction, it just help to remember why I avoid using it

[Greg McCary]

You might do better with a ND filter but the polarizer is a good way to slow the lens down. I like the composition on the second one the best but the exposure seems off. To dark. Maybe an HDR would give you the water movement you need plus help the exposure. Did you shoot RAW? Also the weed/branch in the lower left could be cloned.

[NKP68]

Because the subject is vertical perhaps the image format should also be vertical. Or crop 1/4 of the frame from each side.
Did you shoot any with a faster shutter and get stop motion of the water? Would that help the water look whiter?

[armando_m]

Thanks Greg, yes I shot Raw, I made it darker and with more contrast on purpose, I did try an HDR, although got an even softer image and quit trying to work on it.

nkp, I did not get any faster shots

I'm planning on going again, from a farther away location, since the shot is somewhat soft I do not feel inclined to spend more time trying to improve it.

Thanks for taking the time to comment, I'll consider the comments from all when trying a reshot.

[DGK*CRONE]

I like the picture. I like the way you made it a bit darker and added some contras to it. I like the crop on the first one because you do not have the distracting weeds in the bottom left corner. I like how the water is very bright at the bottom and it looks like it is being rushed out through the rocks. The brightness of the water looks good with the over all dark tones of the way you processed it, IMO.

Looking forward to your next set of pictures from this spot. Is this in Guadalajara?

[GB1]

I think the HDR idea is outstanding. A good solid tripod and the motion blur on the water would look incredible while the rest of the scene's lighting is evened out. Try it !

[armando_m]

Here are a couple of the same waterfall from farther away

On this one I like the view of the rim


and on this one I like the big tree in front of the waterfall,
I'll try to find a way to go down there ...

[LeeIs]

I really like the 2nd last one with all the bright green foliage. for the 1st one, I loved the composition, but it think it might have been a tad too dark and contrasty for a natural waterfall type of shot. oh, and i really like the last one also. now i can't decide which one i prefer of the last two. they are both nicely done.

[armando_m]

Thanks LeeIs

[Greg McCary]

I like the first one, second post. The colors and composition are nice along with the square crop. I think the last one is a little flat. Some contrast would help. Getting better.

[PrevailingConditions]

Compositionally, I like the 2nd one in the 2nd posting, but I'd like to see a little more contrast on the rocks and falls.

I would also recommend you try the ND filter, but also with the polarizer. I really like using polarizers around falls because it cuts out a lot of the nasty glare you typically get on the neighboring rocks in these situations.

PC

[armando_m]

ok, third attempt ...

This time I went early , before sunrise, so I could get long exposures


I'm always amazed on how the camera picks up colors even when dark, the above image is a 15 sec exposure,
iI could barely see the fall and the image came out with crazy colors .

I wanted to get a photo of the sun hitting the waterfall, but right before sunset a lot of fog started to gather right in front of the waterfall
here is closer look


Also did an hdr, with a much wider view, I like how it came out, sort of like a scenario from Pandora (Avatar movie) , well, not really but you get the idea


When the sun was out the water fall was completely behind fog... about 10 mins later the sun went above the clouds, and I was already packing getting ready to get back home

[Anbesol]

Definite improvement each attempt you made, the first one really didn't give an impression of size based on the twisted/compressed perspective. This perspective really gives me a sense of the size. Great work. The sky looks a little strange on the left of the third most recent shots.