[voy-tech]

Capture from my trip to Maui few months back. Seven Sacred Pools captured late afternoon from the road to Hana. It was a sunny day that turned to overcast later in the day and I actually like how it turned out without the sun, although in the evening the sun would be behind me (if I remember the location correctly) so who knows maybe it would turn out better if I got there before the clouds. Any thoughts?

[gmiyamoto]

I like the overcast photo.
The sun would have added more contrast with harsher shadows.
If you are not satisfied with the current photo, you can still apply a curves adjustment layer to selectively accentuate various areas.
Also, nice composition.

[voy-tech]

I like the overcast photo.
The sun would have added more contrast with harsher shadows.
If you are not satisfied with the current photo, you can still apply a curves adjustment layer to selectively accentuate various areas.
Also, nice composition.

Thanks, yes I do like how it turned out. And I always make some adjustments to the curves, white balance and some vibrancy to bring out the shadows and tone down the highlights, this one also has a little vignette added.

There is some unfortunate movement in some branches due to longer exposure, I especially like the rocks in the foreground, although the web resolution doesn't show it as good as a full size picture.

[nomadkng]

Sometimes the light cooperates, sometimes it doesn't.

A tighter, more panoramic crop might work better. The sky really adds nothing to the image. The left foreground could be cropped inside the vertical branch, the bottom could be cropped probably halfway between the outflow and the already chopped next fall. I would start cropping the right edge at about where the furthest outflow disappears behind the rock rise and maybe even work my way in from there.

The other issue is the heavy moisture/haze in the air. A polarizing filter would have helped. You can also try gamma/black point adjustments (one or both) or even just an overlay to try and bring more pop to the scene. Contrast alone is not the problem, I think it's called tonal separation.

aside from the crop, I did a shadows highlight adjustment (25/25/225 + 25/25/225) and black clip of 10%/added a gradient overlay from top/ +15 saturation/adjusted midtones to 1.30 in levels/and a 75% linear contrast curve

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Last edited by nomadkng; 05-06-2015 at 08:24 AM.

[voy-tech]

Sometimes the light cooperates, sometimes it doesn't.

A tighter, more panoramic crop might work better. The sky really adds nothing to the image. The left foreground could be cropped inside the vertical branch, the bottom could be cropped probably halfway between the outflow and the already chopped next fall. I would start cropping the right edge at about where the furthest outflow disappears behind the rock rise and maybe even work my way in from there. I probably would even crop the top all the way down past the bridge, but I have never been fond of man-made objects in my waterfall images.

The other issue is the heavy moisture/haze in the air. A polarizing filter would have helped. You can also try gamma/black point adjustments (one or both) or even just an overlay to try and bring more pop to the scene. Contrast alone is not the problem, I think it's called tonal separation.

Awesome - I'll try your cropping suggestions when I get home and see how it will look. I did have a polarizing filter as well as 10-stop ND, but I'll look into the black point adjustments. Thanks

@nomadkng - you have some amazing captures on your website, I'll need to check it out more thoroughly when I have some time.

[nomadkng]

Awesome - I'll try your cropping suggestions when I get home and see how it will look. I did have a polarizing filter as well as 10-stop ND, but I'll look into the black point adjustments. Thanks

@nomadkng - you have some amazing captures on your website, I'll need to check it out more thoroughly when I have some time.

TY. I'm just sooo jealous you got to see this in person in the first place

I added a 1 minute PP idea with settings as a starting point. I might still play a little more with the black clip, but my monitors at work aren't as good as what I have at home so it's tough for my to really hone in on a final setting. I might even sharpen it a little more and possible play with the WB. Depending on how outside the box I was feeling, I might even try a colored gradient to simulate twilight hues or really pump up the contrast and see how it looked in B&W. Hope this helps.

[voy-tech]

TY. I'm just sooo jealous you got to see this in person in the first place

I added a 1 minute PP idea with settings as a starting point. I might still play a little more with the black clip, but my monitors at work aren't as good as what I have at home so it's tough for my to really hone in on a final setting. I might even sharpen it a little more and possible play with the WB. Depending on how outside the box I was feeling, I might even try a colored gradient to simulate twilight hues or really pump up the contrast and see how it looked in B&W. Hope this helps.

I really like the crop you did and I see what you mean with the sky there not adding anything to the picture, I was usually reluctant to crop my pictures in the past but I think I'll have to start thinking about it more (especially when I'm on a prime lens with limited vantage point opportunities like with this capture).

[osv]

that's a cool shot.

i had that same cloudy sky problem on a recent trip to the north rim of the grand canyon... no shadows at that place can be difficult.

shooting your shot a bit tighter, on the order of how nomad cropped it, is the way to go, just leave some room.

the other thing is that it's soft on the left side, it looks like not quite enough dof... you used f/4 on the g3? that's a small sensor camera, right? i wonder if it would have more dof at f/5.6.

[voy-tech]

that's a cool shot.

i had that same cloudy sky problem on a recent trip to the north rim of the grand canyon... no shadows at that place can be difficult.

shooting your shot a bit tighter, on the order of how nomad cropped it, is the way to go, just leave some room.

the other thing is that it's soft on the left side, it looks like not quite enough dof... you used f/4 on the g3? that's a small sensor camera, right? i wonder if it would have more dof at f/5.6.

With this lens I tend to stay at f/4 mostly because it's it sweet spot as far as sharpness goes, however it's a pancake lens and the corners are noticeably softer than the center. However some of the softness in the image also comes from the shutter speed, with 10-stop ND, my shutter speed was 15s, so some leaves/branches have some softness from the movement here.
As far as DoF goes with this camera/lens at f/4 everything is in focus from around 6.6 meters to infinity.

[osv]

6.6 meters is what, 20+ feet? maybe most those plants on the left side are within that range.

i've gone through major hassles trying to find wide glass that has a flat enough field of focus to shoot landscapes, that are sharp to the edges, and clean enough to keep the foreground object in focus.

for landscapes, the only way i've been able to do it is to shoot at the edge of diffraction, which on ff is no higher than ~f/10... i don't know what aperture that translates to on a small sensor camera, probably f/5.6 or so?? you could be there with that f/4 already, it's certainly clean on the right side.

if you do controlled testing, you can see the center resolution start to fall off when diffraction is reached.

of course the max center sharpness for lenses on ff is going to be well under f/10, maybe f/5.6 or f/8... but with landscapes, field curvature on the sides is where the real struggle is.

good pic, thx for sharing it.

[voy-tech]

6.6 meters is what, 20+ feet? maybe most those plants on the left side are within that range.

i've gone through major hassles trying to find wide glass that has a flat enough field of focus to shoot landscapes, that are sharp to the edges, and clean enough to keep the foreground object in focus.

for landscapes, the only way i've been able to do it is to shoot at the edge of diffraction, which on ff is no higher than ~f/10... i don't know what aperture that translates to on a small sensor camera, probably f/5.6 or so?? you could be there with that f/4 already, it's certainly clean on the right side.

if you do controlled testing, you can see the center resolution start to fall off when diffraction is reached.

of course the max center sharpness for lenses on ff is going to be well under f/10, maybe f/5.6 or f/8... but with landscapes, field curvature on the sides is where the real struggle is.

good pic, thx for sharing it.

I've since switched to Pentax K5IIs and a Pentax Ltd 20-40mm which is much more even across the frame when it comes to sharpness and I shoot landscapes with it at f/8 - however this capture is from few months back when I still used the Panasonic (I still use it as a backup sometimes, with the 20mm pancake it's a great little camera with very nice IQ for the size).

[alamo5000]

I've swam in those pools a few times