Post Your Waterfalls

[Brian_A]

I can almost feel the spray.

Indeed!

[Brian_A]

Some smallish waterfalls for your viewing pleasure (i hope). All shot on velvia, the panoramic 50, the rest 100. The panoramic on a Art panorama 617 with a schneider SA 90mm F8, the rest on an Ebony SV45ti with nikkor 90SW or 150W.

You have some neat images here! Did you use any filters on these or are all those great saturated sunrise/sunset colors from the Velvia itself?

-Brian

[Dan Schmidt]

boulder falls, colorado, 8x10 contact print

[jim kitchen]

I can almost feel the spray.

Dear Greg and Brian,

Matter of fact I did get very wet...

The hike to the base was stimulating, and the thunderous noise was overwhelming.

jim k

[Brian Ellis]

I'm sorry if my images are unappealing to you, but there is no need to insult another person like that. To say that you do not enjoy them is one thing, but to say it that way is a little on the rude side. I like to use this forum to show my work and see what others think about it. That and learn how to make my images better the next time. I know I'm not the prolific photographer that a lot of people on here are. I am always open to constructive criticism, but not insults. I hope to one day be as good as you all, but until then having "criticism" like that definitely doesn't help anyone or anything.

-Brian

I agree with you that the comment made in that way was rude and uncalled for. However, if you can get past the rudeness there actually is a valid point in there, i.e. the highlights in your photographs are blown out, at least they look that way on my monitor. Assuming the monitor and your prints look about the same, part of the problem is that most of your photographs were made in very bright, contrasty light. It's difficult, often impossible, to make technically good color waterfall photographs in that kind of light because the contrast range is too great for the film to handle. Black and white photographers can sometimes get away with it by exposing for the shadows and reducing development time to bring down the highlights but that's more problematical with color film. The other possible problem is that you're just over-exposing in general by about a stop because there are a couple photographs that don't appear to have been made in sunlight yet the highlights in those are blown out too.

Hope this helps. You have some very nice compositions so you obviously have a good eye, it's just a matter of maybe getting your technique down a little better or choosing another time of day to photograph waterfalls.

[Brian_A]

Now that is what I am looking for, thank you.

At least on my monitor - and it's calibrated (X-Rite) - only one of my images is completely blown. I've made a few prints and I have detail in the water in all but the the third one. A couple have some detail, but not as much as I'd like. And yes, I did learn an important lesson about shooitng Velvia 50/100 in very high contrast situations. Obviously I'm going to have to try different films, like Provia, Astia, some B&W film and maybe even some C41 to see which is best for the way I shoot.

Coming from doing digital panoramic images to film has been a learning curve. With regular 4x5 I've gotten pretty good results with waterfalls, but I'm having some issues the 120 side of it for some reason. Now, when you say it's overexposed, I think that may be because my scanner and how I'm editing the image. I'm having a hard time getting the colors I want (IE The colors I see when I look at the actual transparency itself) and as I edit them, the details in the highs seem to go away. In the transparency itself, I see a good amount of detail in the water in my images, with the third one being an exception. I'm getting a Velvia IT8 target, so hopefully I'll be able to rescan with better results. For now, though, I'm stuck with my Ektachrome IT8 calibration, which is WAY off. Either way, it might just be a combination of the way my monitor and scanner are calibrated, as I am seeing detail in most of them on my monitor and when I make prints. I guess we'll see when I get the new IT8 target. Once I get that I will hopefully have better scan results ending up with less blowing out of the highlights.

Thank you for the input, if you have any other suggestions, please respond here or pm me, I very much appreciate any help or suggestions you can give me for shooting watefalls, as that is my current "pet project". I'm always looking for more ways to accomplish the same goal from any of you. That is, after ya'll are done throwing up.

Thanks!

-Brian

I agree with you that the comment made in that way was rude and uncalled for. However, if you can get past the rudeness there actually is a valid point in there, i.e. the highlights in your photographs are blown out, at least they look that way on my monitor. Assuming the monitor and your prints look about the same, part of the problem is that most of your photographs were made in very bright, contrasty light. It's difficult, often impossible, to make technically good color waterfall photographs in that kind of light because the contrast range is too great for the film to handle. Black and white photographers can sometimes get away with it by exposing for the shadows and reducing development time to bring down the highlights but that's more problematical with color film. The other possible problem is that you're just over-exposing in general by about a stop because there are a couple photographs that don't appear to have been made in sunlight yet the highlights in those are blown out too.

Hope this helps. You have some very nice compositions so you obviously have a good eye, it's just a matter of maybe getting your technique down a little better or choosing another time of day to photograph waterfalls.

[David A. Goldfarb]

Puahokumoa Falls, Maui, 2005. 4x5" albumen print.

Love the triptych, Jim!

[jim kitchen]

Thanks Brian and John. I used a 270mm G-Claron on a Wisner 4X5. I used massive shift keeping the lens and film plane parallel for all 3 exposures. That G-Claron would cover 11X14, so 5X12 is easy for it. I did this in 7X17 also that day but this triptych works the best. I have it printed in 3 11X14 panels at my home.

Dear Jim,

Interesting technique, excellent result...

jim k

[Jim Galli]

Puahokumoa Falls, Maui, 2005. 4x5" albumen print.
Love the triptych, Jim!

Thanks David. Yours has caught my eye too. Not often you get to look down at a waterfall. Neat perspective.

Re: Post Your Waterfalls

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Quote:
Originally Posted by Jim Galli
Thanks Brian and John. I used a 270mm G-Claron on a Wisner 4X5. I used massive shift keeping the lens and film plane parallel for all 3 exposures. That G-Claron would cover 11X14, so 5X12 is easy for it. I did this in 7X17 also that day but this triptych works the best. I have it printed in 3 11X14 panels at my home.

Dear Jim,

Interesting technique, excellent result...

jim k

Thanks Jim!

[Tori Nelson]

Do little baby waterfalls count? I mean, it is water, and it is flowing quickly in a downward motion. It may not be grand enough to cause someone to throw up but it is certainly capable of causing a tummy ache.

8x10 neg.