[voy-tech]

Saw many pictures of this place and last weekend I've finally ventured to see the waterfall myself - it's a truly amazing place and it's really hard to do it justice in a photograph still I couldn't help myself but try. This is a 20s exposure with a ND400 and a polarizer. Let me know what you think?

[MattCard]

Ho it is well done, i really like the colors and composition. I would have liked maybe just a touch more room at the top of the fall, but that aside for me it's a perfect shot I particularly like the look of the wall of rock, basaltic column ?

[voy-tech]

Ho it is well done, i really like the colors and composition. I would have liked maybe just a touch more room at the top of the fall, but that aside for me it's a perfect shot I particularly like the look of the wall of rock, basaltic column ?

Thanks! I cropped it from the top since the sky was blown out (cloudy day and a pretty dark area to photograph), the rocks are basalt as far as i know, Oregon is full of those almost every waterfall along the Columbia River Gorge is surrounded by similar basaltic columns.

[csa]

Ho it is well done, i really like the colors and composition. I would have liked maybe just a touch more room at the top of the fall, but that aside for me it's a perfect shot I particularly like the look of the wall of rock, basaltic column ?

Plus 1! However, it's understandable when the OP explained the blown out sky. The detail achieved in the back wall, as well as the beautiful water, is outstanding!

[nomadkng]

I have a couple issues:

I understand the intent of cropping, but the lower left quadrant doesn't hold much interest for me and it now plays a prominent role. Even before reading the text of the post, I was disconcerted by the "low ceiling." The image feels "squished."

My second concern is the placement of the large boulder in the image center. Because it's a single isolated object by texture/color & shape is grabs a lot of attention, almost to the point of being the main actor. It doesn't help that it infringes on some of the waterfall itself AND creates a break in the outflow.

Suggestions:

This photo op may have benefited from a higher perspective rather than a closer to ground level placement. You would have been able to shoot over the large central boulder and possibly keep the water contiguous. You may also have been able to find a version in which the sky was cropped by composition, not in post processing. A check of your histogram during your shoot would have alerted you to the major sky blow out and you might have been able to find work arounds while on-site.

The final note is purely subjective - finding the right shutter speed for waterfalls can be tricky and to some degree is a matter of taste. I, personally, think the shutter speed was overly long for the volume of water, in this case. I try to find the fine line between blur and retaining a slight amount of detail. I was taught, the greater the flow, the faster the shutter speed. This waterfall may have been a candidate for 2-3 second shutter speeds. You may have done this already, but at the very least, I would have shot this image at 4-5 different exposures, with my shutter speed ranging from 1 second and up.

[voy-tech]

I have a couple issues:

I understand the intent of cropping, but the lower left quadrant doesn't hold much interest for me and it now plays a prominent role. Even before reading the text of the post, I was disconcerted by the "low ceiling." The image feels "squished."

My second concern is the placement of the large boulder in the image center. Because it's a single isolated object by texture/color & shape is grabs a lot of attention, almost to the point of being the main actor. It doesn't help that it infringes on some of the waterfall itself AND creates a break in the outflow.

Suggestions:

This photo op may have benefited from a higher perspective rather than a closer to ground level placement. You would have been able to shoot over the large central boulder and possibly keep the water contiguous. You may also have been able to find a version in which the sky was cropped by composition, not in post processing. A check of your histogram during your shoot would have alerted you to the major sky blow out and you might have been able to find work arounds while on-site.

The final note is purely subjective - finding the right shutter speed for waterfalls can be tricky and to some degree is a matter of taste. I, personally, think the shutter speed was overly long for the volume of water, in this case. I try to find the fine line between blur and retaining a slight amount of detail. I was taught, the greater the flow, the faster the shutter speed. This waterfall may have been a candidate for 2-3 second shutter speeds. You may have done this already, but at the very least, I would have shot this image at 4-5 different exposures, with my shutter speed ranging from 1 second and up.

Thank you for the feedback - you brought up some great points here. Let me try to provide a better context to some of those.
1) fully agree on first - I actually cropped out the left side since there wasn't really anything there except for some more rocks and a couple of branches
2) I actually used a second boulder to setup my tripod higher trying to look over the first boulder - unfortunately my tripod Slik 330DX wasn't high enough to really overcome this so I had to settle for the end result - the camera was overall about 2 meters above ground at that point. I didn't crop the image too much from the top as I was aware the sky would come out blown out so I composed it in a way where the sky would be minimally featured in the image.
3) Here again I agree and I tend to try and keep the shutter speed around 2-3 seconds most of the time, however for this shot I wanted a longer exposure and a softer feel for the waterfall - my lacking of the right filters always hits me hard since I only have the polarizer (practically always on the lens and the ND400 in my bag - I know that I need to get more filters just never can really get myself to order those. Btw. I did took another shot from slightly different perspective and without the ND filter with about 2s exposure but I really liked this result much better.

[CreationBear]

my lacking of the right filters

Definitely understand how terrain affects composition--a beautiful scene to explore, nonetheless.


I'll be curious what kind of grad filter you might get--I don't shoot many "big sky" scenes, so my main use for one would be to tame the "notch" above a river channel. (I've considered getting a Lee soft grad to put in my pack to use handheld...)

[voy-tech]

Definitely understand how terrain affects composition--a beautiful scene to explore, nonetheless.


I'll be curious what kind of grad filter you might get--I don't shoot many "big sky" scenes, so my main use for one would be to tame the "notch" above a river channel. (I've considered getting a Lee soft grad to put in my pack to use handheld...)

I think i finally need to invest in a set of Lee filters and holders for my primary lenses. I had too many times where I had to work hard to save a shot in post process that would have been very easy to capture with the right grad filter.

[Racer X 69]

Saw many pictures of this place and last weekend I've finally ventured to see the waterfall myself - it's a truly amazing place and it's really hard to do it justice in a photograph still I couldn't help myself but try. This is a 20s exposure with a ND400 and a polarizer. Let me know what you think?

Nice shot.

I lived in Silverton when I was 12 ~ 13 years old. We would ride our bikes out of town towards Mount Angel, and swim in Abiqua Creek.

Where are the falls located?

[voy-tech]

Nice shot.

I lived in Silverton when I was 12 ~ 13 years old. We would ride our bikes out of town towards Mount Angel, and swim in Abiqua Creek.

Where are the falls located?

It's pretty easy to find on google maps: https://goo.gl/maps/VZhmr54fsF72

[Racer X 69]

It's pretty easy to find on google maps: https://goo.gl/maps/VZhmr54fsF72

Thanks for the reply.

After I made that post I did some digging. There are a couple of hiking sites that give directions. Looks like one would go through Scotts Mills and then head East into the hills. I was probably very near there on a bicycle once upon a time in the late 1960's.

[milwrd]

Saw many pictures of this place and last weekend I've finally ventured to see the waterfall myself - it's a truly amazing place and it's really hard to do it justice in a photograph still I couldn't help myself but try. This is a 20s exposure with a ND400 and a polarizer. Let me know what you think?

Excellent time exposure.

[08amczb]

Great image, I really like it! Although I would go a little left with the camera to get that rock out of the way of the waterfall visually. (If it would be possible...)

[pentaxshooter89]

Nicely done. Agree, I would have included more at the top of falls.

[SpottyReputation]

very nice! I would rotate the image a couple degrees clockwise. Can I ask why the ND with the polarizer? Serious question. Do 20 seconds worth of reflection seriously change the colour of the water?