[robysue]

I live about 30 minutes away from Niagara Falls. So we go up there several times a year. This shot is from several years ago. The rainbow with the Maid of the Mist really caught my eye.

Notes:

1) There is actually a double rainbow, but the second one is very faint and is lost in the falls. But that's why the color of the water of the falls might not be totally consistent.

2) The primary rainbow really was that bright and distinct.

3) Focal length on the zoom was 28mm

[BigDave]

Not sure what you were going for, the tourists in the boat, all in the blue ponchos, or more of a landscape. If the tourists, zoom in closer (from your vantage point on the cliffs by the falls, a longer lens would have been required). If the subject was a landscape, then go wider.

For both, keeping the double rainbow is paramount!

[RobA_Oz]

The double rainbow is plainly visible, and your composition is probably as good as you could get, given the circumstances.

Technically, your focus is good, and the lighting allowed strong contrast in the main point of interest (the boat).

All that said, if you could have bracketed the shot to allow for the possibility of the boat angling itself a little more along a diagonal line, the image would have been a bit stronger.

If you can get hold of a copy of Michael Freeman’s Book “The Photographer’s Eye”, he talks a lot about techniques such as this.

[PJ1]

I like the sharp focus on the boat and tourists. For the landscape aspect I would prefer a little more of the part above the falls in the shot. But I don't know if the structure (?) on the left would be too distracting.

[wstruth]

You captured that double rainbow which is great. I would suggest going wider to get the horizon AND sky of the above the river as well as get the boat positioned for the rule of thirds and that would allow for a bit more for the foreground plants too. I'm not sure if golden hour shooting would work here since the boat is in the gorge and the sun might not get down there, ut it might work well on the falls and what is above the gorge.

Generally what I try and do is move a round and take a few shots with differentiate zoom settings. Often what I think was the shot is not it, and one of the others is what I choose.

[manishved]

Awesome shot -especially considering it was shot with a camera very primitive. Did you try clicking the same shot with a modern mobile phone just for a quick comparison?

[aitrus3]

Either tighter crop or wider. The plants on the bottom are sticking up into the frame and are a little distracting. The barely visible structure at the top is also distracting, making me wonder what's there.
One of the things I always have difficulty doing is picking a subject and the supporting players. What's the subject? the boat? The rainbow? Pick one and use the others to support the image.

[robysue]

I like the sharp focus on the boat and tourists. For the landscape aspect I would prefer a little more of the part above the falls in the shot. But I don't know if the structure (?) on the left would be too distracting.

That's exactly why the top of the shot is where it's at: There was an ugly construction site with lots of bare dirt and large construction equipment visible on the top side of Goat Island---i.e. just left of the falls in this photo. Had I included more of the sky, that construction site would have been very, very distracting.

---------- Post added 12-24-19 at 08:54 AM ----------

Awesome shot -especially considering it was shot with a camera very primitive. Did you try clicking the same shot with a modern mobile phone just for a quick comparison?

This shot was from 2015. I didn't own a "modern mobile phone" at the time. When this picture was taken hubby and I only had his primitive flip phone with no camera for a cell. And my current phone is only an Apple iPhone 5S that seems to have a very hit-or-miss camera: Sometimes it focuses and takes a good shot, sometimes it refuses to focus. And it's not worth fixing or replacing yet.

While both my husband and I work with up-to-date computers all the time on the job, we tend to hang on to things like phones, cameras, and our own personal laptops far, far longer than most people do.

---------- Post added 12-24-19 at 09:02 AM ----------

You captured that double rainbow which is great. I would suggest going wider to get the horizon AND sky of the above the river as well as get the boat positioned for the rule of thirds and that would allow for a bit more for the foreground plants too. I'm not sure if golden hour shooting would work here since the boat is in the gorge and the sun might not get down there, ut it might work well on the falls and what is above the gorge.

The rainbows would not have been there at the golden hour. And the gorge does get dark much sooner than the area above the gorge.

Generally what I try and do is move a round and take a few shots with differentiate zoom settings. Often what I think was the shot is not it, and one of the others is what I choose.

This was a totally unplanned shot. We were walking along the sidewalk on the Canadian side of the gorge towards the falls when we saw the rainbow. And so I stopped to take a bunch of photos with the lens I happened to have. While taking pictures of the rainbow, the Maid of the Mist just happened to start coming into the frame and I thought it looked pretty cool. Of the numerous photos I took, this one seemed to have the best focus and also seemed to show the second rainbow the best.

---------- Post added 12-24-19 at 09:05 AM ----------

Either tighter crop or wider. The plants on the bottom are sticking up into the frame and are a little distracting. The barely visible structure at the top is also distracting, making me wonder what's there.
One of the things I always have difficulty doing is picking a subject and the supporting players. What's the subject? the boat? The rainbow? Pick one and use the others to support the image.

The suggestions on cropping are useful. I'll post a couple of different crops of this same shot a bit later.

As for the subject: What caught my eye was the combination of the boat with the rainbow. I was shooting the rainbow at first and the boat came into view and I thought it looked cool. But I'll dig up a shot of the rainbow before the Maid of the Mist entered the picture so you can tell me if you think it's a better picture.

---------- Post added 12-24-19 at 09:21 AM ----------

aitrus3 suggested either a wider or a tighter crop.

This is a wider crop of the same photo. The rock in the lower left hand corner was why I cropped where I did in the first post:




And here's a closer crop. I'm not sure how much closer I could go on cropping without losing the second rainbow.



Are either of these any better than the first one in terms of cropping the same image?

[aitrus3]

I like the second, but less square. I know the plants are distracting but keeping the Maid in the left third as well as slightly above bottom third would be ideal. And then if you have it, use a clone brush, in-paiting brush (Affinity Photo) or content Aware brush (PS) you can remove the plants. If you don't have a program to do it don't worry, it'll still be a stronger composition.

[Sir Nameless]

I think it's a great shot and it tells a good story. Nice job capitalizing on the opportunity. If it were mine, I'd try some of these things:
- Crop off the top of the shot so you don't see any building or even the top of the waterfall. I think that will make the waterfall more of a supporting element (explains the rainbow) and would remove some of the distraction.
- Likewise crop a little off the bottom to remove as many plants as possible. Leave the boat a little breathing room to the edge of the frame. Clone out whatever plants survive the crop, as well as you can. I know it will move the boat further away from the ideal 'rule-of-thirds' point but IMO it would be a good trade-off.
- If you can brighten and sharpen the boat locally a little bit, that might help, but it's not entirely necessary since it's already pretty bright compared to other elements in the frame.
- Try increasing vibrance and/or saturation and/or lightness (find a good balance) for reds, yellows, oranges, purples to enhance the rainbows (and I agree, the 2nd rainbow is certainly distinct in my mind, doesn't look like miscolored water to me at all). You could try enhancing blues and greens if you can do so locally, but I like the fact that those colors are rather muted in the vegetation and water, so I wouldn't want to mess with those.\

Good luck!

[aitrus3]

That's exactly why the top of the shot is where it's at: There was an ugly construction site with lots of bare dirt and large construction equipment visible on the top side of Goat Island---i.e. just left of the falls in this photo. Had I included more of the sky, that construction site would have been very, very distracting.

---------- Post added 12-24-19 at 08:54 AM ----------

This shot was from 2015. I didn't own a "modern mobile phone" at the time. When this picture was taken hubby and I only had his primitive flip phone with no camera for a cell. And my current phone is only an Apple iPhone 5S that seems to have a very hit-or-miss camera: Sometimes it focuses and takes a good shot, sometimes it refuses to focus. And it's not worth fixing or replacing yet.

While both my husband and I work with up-to-date computers all the time on the job, we tend to hang on to things like phones, cameras, and our own personal laptops far, far longer than most people do.

---------- Post added 12-24-19 at 09:02 AM ----------


The rainbows would not have been there at the golden hour. And the gorge does get dark much sooner than the area above the gorge.

This was a totally unplanned shot. We were walking along the sidewalk on the Canadian side of the gorge towards the falls when we saw the rainbow. And so I stopped to take a bunch of photos with the lens I happened to have. While taking pictures of the rainbow, the Maid of the Mist just happened to start coming into the frame and I thought it looked pretty cool. Of the numerous photos I took, this one seemed to have the best focus and also seemed to show the second rainbow the best.

---------- Post added 12-24-19 at 09:05 AM ----------


The suggestions on cropping are useful. I'll post a couple of different crops of this same shot a bit later.

As for the subject: What caught my eye was the combination of the boat with the rainbow. I was shooting the rainbow at first and the boat came into view and I thought it looked cool. But I'll dig up a shot of the rainbow before the Maid of the Mist entered the picture so you can tell me if you think it's a better picture.

---------- Post added 12-24-19 at 09:21 AM ----------

aitrus3 suggested either a wider or a tighter crop.

This is a wider crop of the same photo. The rock in the lower left hand corner was why I cropped where I did in the first post:




And here's a closer crop. I'm not sure how much closer I could go on cropping without losing the second rainbow.



Are either of these any better than the first one in terms of cropping the same image?

If you don't mind, I could download and share my vision of how I'd do this. I'm no pro, but I like to dabble.

[RGlasel]

I live about 30 minutes away from Niagara Falls. So we go up there several times a year.

Awesome shot -especially considering it was shot with a camera very primitive. Did you try clicking the same shot with a modern mobile phone just for a quick comparison?

I didn't own a "modern mobile phone" at the time...

The suggestions on cropping are useful. I'll post a couple of different crops of this same shot a bit later.

Other than cloning out the plants at the bottom centre and possibly some selective dimming of highlights in the left bottom region below the rainbow, there isn't much that can be done to this photo that will make it better and many things that will make it less appealing. A cell phone camera would have overloaded on sunlight and lost much of the details, including mist and the image would have had less dynamic range. Not to mention that the colours would have not been as true as Pentax colours. A phone camera would have given you a wider field of view (about 21mm vs 28mm) and a wider field of view would definitely have been better (you could always digitally erase the construction site or make it unobtrusive) but this is a good example of a situtation where even an older DSLR will take better photos than a phone camera.


If it was me who had taken the picture (who has only been to Niagara Falls once, in 1985). I would be tickled pink with this. However, you have the opportunity to go back when the time of day and weather give you pretty good odds of getting an even better re-do. You can take a picture of a rainbow anywhere, so the Falls has to be the main focus of your photo (as it is in this photo), getting a bright, distinct image of the rainbow puts you ahead of millions of other photos taken from the same spot and the Maid of the Mist follows a regular schedule, so you can plan your next photo to also include this iconic element. If you know ahead of time what you want to photograph, you can scout out where to stand, put a wider angle lens on your camera and wait for the right time to move into place and start taking photos.

[Wasp]

You have certainly nailed the exposure. Some tweaking in post might help the second rainbow stand out a bit more.

A little cropping could be good. I am not quite sure that the plants in the foreground work.

Did you take ant shots without the boat? Less might be more.

[robysue]

If you don't mind, I could download and share my vision of how I'd do this. I'm no pro, but I like to dabble.

By all means download and share your vision!

That will help me learn.

Did you take ant shots without the boat? Less might be more.

Yes, but they are on a different computer. When I have a chance later today, I'll post one of them so you can compare the shot with and without the boat.

[aitrus3]

This is something of what I had in mind. I also agree that less may be more in this situation. But if you want both, this might be the best way to do it.