The Power Of Niagara

[Joseph Bautsch]

I'm thinking about entering this photo in my local photo clubs contest. It it worthy of my doing so? I would like your C&C beforehand.

 

[Eduard]

I love the image but it appears to be a little dark. Is your monitor calibrated?

 

[Fotojo]

Hey Joseph
This is a great Photo I love the angle and the view. But I am with Eduard questioning your monitor the sky and the falls coloring and darkness seem to be a bit off. Of the sky and water had a bit more pop this photo would rock for sure.

Randy

 

[Joseph Bautsch]

OK. Thanks guys. Just what I was looking for. I had questions about the same thing. The monitor is fine. This is not one shot. It's a three shot HDR. I'll take it apart and see if I can do anything with it. I like the composition so I'll work on it. There is no sky it's all heavy mist I was trying to penetrate. Close but probably no cigar.

 

[jdeg]

Great pic - like others said though I would brighten up the falls, since they are the subject, and darken the foreground.

 

[Browncoat]

Great composition and motion capture. Cascading water can be tricky, and you've got it just right!

I'll toss my hat into the ring with the others about the color as well. HDR can tend to wash things out a bit unless you over-dramatize the saturation. You've got some awesome detail in the foreground going on, but the color and shadows of the falls sort of get lost. Some more tweaking and it will go from great to fabulous!

 

[Joseph Bautsch]

Thanks for the comments guys. I'm going to work on it and see what can be done. If I can revise it to look better I'll repost it.

 

[Joseph Bautsch]

Again? I tried it a different way.

 

[Joseph Bautsch]

OK, what about B&W?

 

[Eduard]

Again? I tried it a different way.

I think the water/sky is getting better. If you're using Lightroom, I might try an angled graduated filter over the sky starting in the top left.

I think the foreground was better on the original image. Not having been there, was the greenery noticeable when you made the image?

 

[Eduard]

OK, what about B&W?

I think B&W might be the way to go but the grad filter comment from the color image would still work. What did you use to convert?

 

[Joseph Bautsch]

OK, new version. Following your suggestions, with which I agree, I took out some of the highlights in the sky and made the falls a little brighter. I thought the foreground was a little to distracting so I darkened it and made it less intense and cropped some of it out. Cropping also took out some of the rock, which I thought was a little too distracting.

My photo management and editing is done on Aperture 3. I do have the gradient filters in Aperture but have not used them yet. I could not make the B&W work like I wanted it to. Probably because I'm not really a B&W person and don't have enough experience working with it.