minniev Loc: MIssissippi

Dingman's Falls is a peculiarly shaped thing with available viewing parallel and straight across the runoff pond. You can go to the right of my viewpoint but trees in the way, can go up but more trees. Can get on top and look down (no). I took a ton of shots, none any more satisfactory than this angle. I shot segments that are smaller but used this one so you can see the whole thing and can advise on a crop, which I likely have in a more zoomed-in shot. Please offer any other feedback or suggestions too. You are welcome to fiddle with it and repost or offer other examples especially if you've shot this one. The one on wikipedia is worse than mine.

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Chuck_893 Loc: Lincoln, Nebraska, USA

Wikipedia's is even worse than MINE, and that's reeeeaaaallly bad! I think yours is a stunner and I wish I'd been able to make it. We were there in 2013 and I lacked a tripod, so I made it hand-held with my then-primary P7100 shooting in jpeg as I always did at that time. It's a little embarrassing now. I may pull the original into Lightroom (I always kept a totally untouched "raw" jpeg for just that purpose) and see if I can do better now.

I really do love yours! The soft light is perfect (the problem with so many shots of Dingmans is the sun getting in there and raising havoc with the dynamic range), and there was just some discussion elsewhere of how the uber-smooth rushing water is becoming something of a cliche; I think this is just right, not too much! What should you do? In my opinion nothing. :thumbup: :thumbup:

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jim hill Loc: Springfield, IL

For what it's worth, here's my version, second attempt. There are lots of other things possible but this is the one for now.

Thanks. Min. I appreciate your letting us play with you image. I have been in the same situation. Went ahead with the shot to see if anything could be done PP.

Min's Waterfall

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minniev Loc: MIssissippi

Thank you for for these comments and especially for sharing your version Chuck. Looks like we chose similar angles. Great minds think alike?:) I prefer to keep some detail as I am too stubborn to go with the popular cotton candy water look. No crop? I don't much like that mess at the bottom but can't figure out how to improve it. I bet you can get some detail out of the brighter water in yours with LR. If not, you are welcome to some of my water! Late afternoon was probably kinder than a sunny day.

minniev Loc: MIssissippi

Thank you Jim for this version. I sometimes forget that those fall colors we seek so diligently can convert quite nicely into monochrome. I will always shoot what's there. If I can't figure out a definite plan for what I'm gonna do on site I just shoot a bunch of stuff and experiment later. I knew this one was a booger when I saw it all splayed out like that.

My Pennsylvania images are gonna be a bit different from my usual trip photos- no grand landscapes, much more subtle subject matter, so I had to think different about shooting and had a harder time predicting my PP plans.

Linda From Maine Loc: Yakima, Washington

Minnie, I like yours a lot! I tried and tried to find something to criticize - just ain't gonna happen :)

minniev Loc: MIssissippi

Thanks Linda. I just keep wishing for a crop that'll make it look less odd.. Maybe it's just a weird waterfall. Made me feel better that Chuck tried exactly the same thing with it.

Chuck_893 Loc: Lincoln, Nebraska, USA

I went back in the files and found three SOOC jpegs I made at Dingmans. I reworked them but I'm still not happy. I think I went too far in a lot of directions. They're better than they were, but ...

(yeah those are terrible! I gotta do it again!)

This is the same file I posted before. I did remove some of the foreground foam, but I like the swirling water so I don't want to crop

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This is an in-camera crop

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Different angle, water bouncing off the wall.

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minniev Loc: MIssissippi

Better. Well ya got some detail back and the first no longer has blown highlights but jpegs always make you pay for it don't they? Better but probably not yet up to your standards. It might take some fairly heroic effort to make up. I don't know why detail retrieval in jpegs exacts such a price in things that seem irrelevant to what you're fixing but you may. An idea- follow Jim's path -retrieve the highlights and shadows, then convert to monochrome and add the contrast back in?

Billyspad Loc: The Philippines

min your shot is technically perfect and quite lovely.
Like the vast majority of landscape shots it totally fails to convey just how stunning and wonderful the world in which we live is. I think trying to portray the landscape your eyes saw is an impossible task but one I am sure you and others will continue to do.
Might be idleness on my part or defeatism but if I visited the Grand Cayon it would be a camera free trip. Have you ever seen a photo that can do justice to it? Its not possible for a man made made machine with a puny limited sensor to capture what your eyes saw and brain comprehended.
So to excite and inspire your picture needs a dose of extreme PP or as Capa said “If your photos aren’t good enough, then you’re not close enough.”
So a close up of a small part of the scene?
Capturing all that munificence is an impossible task.
Like 99.9% and indeed more of all landscape snaps it ends up looking like technically perfect postcard.
Nature has the wow facter big time your little oly will always struggle to capture it. It cant in a straight forward shot convey size majesty and sheer overwhelming beauty of what your Creator has provided for you.
Its a lovely picture min but nature is better Im afraid.
Got a feeling that Im gonna get jumped on here and every so called great landscape snapper will be mentioned including of course ol Ansell.
Sorry folks just my opinion that landscape is the hardest genre and usually fails to impress left in the hands of the most capable snapper around.

minniev Loc: MIssissippi

Well I hope you don't get jumped on for presenting your honest opinion! That's what this section is for. It is a hard genre and some 'Scapes are more challenging to figure out than others. This one was a doozy. If you see an area you think might be a good detail shot, show me a crop, and I've probably got a version. If you take a notion to show me some of that extreme PP, I'd love to see it! (I tried a 3 shot blend and a software-blended HDR but they didn't work out well so I went back to a single shot.) I took way more shots than I meant to so I have quite a variety, and I'm always thrilled to see demos. My Pennsylvania pix are likely all gonna be a bit tame, a different kind of pretty than the grand vistas I sometimes find in my travels. I appreciate your thoughtful and honest feedback.

jim hill Loc: Springfield, IL

I didn't know that you were seeking an opinion as to whether the piece was successful. I thought you were looking for ways to improve the presentation. If I am in error then there is one simple criteria that I have used from the beginning of my involvement in photography to which I defer:

"If it would have been better for a viewer to have experienced an event or subject rather than viewing your photograph of it then your photograph is a failure." - Yours truly.

However, I did not think you were asking for opinions. I thought you were asking for concrete way in which to correct a problem that you felt within the work itself.

Hope this makes sense to you. It's late here but I know I would not be able to get to sleep worrying about the problem.
One of my peculiarities.

minniev Loc: MIssissippi

Well, I was actually doing some of both. I have a basic frustration with the images at this place because, prowl though I did, I could not find a way of framing the thing that felt right. Never one to admit defeat easily, I tried a lot of things and posted the better of the biggest image to see if anyone had ideas-Cropping, angle, processing, whatever, because I'm stubborn and don't like to be overmatched by a waterfall, they are usually not this aggravating. However, I always put in my posts that I welcome feedback of any kind and that is the truth, I do. So I mean to leave myself open to musings of any kind.

I will say that the darned thing was just as odd-looking in person as in the photos. That's easy to see in Chucks images too, it made me feel better that it whipped him too.

Chuck_893 Loc: Lincoln, Nebraska, USA

Ding Dang Dingmans! :hunf: :evil:

I submit herewith another attempt at dragging by main force a slightly better (mostly final) version of the same angle you got, Min. For me the challenge was that in my jpeg-only days I always "exposed for the highlight," which in most cases was fine except in this case there was an enormous dynamic range. I think this is better, but the main thing is that, compositionally, the thing is a Z-composition, and I suspect that's what's driving you nuts. If you look around the internet, the thing is mostly pictured from that exact same angle (because it's pretty much the only one), so the thing has whupped pretty much everybody! (pretty much!) :lol:

I take refuge in not being not no artiste :mrgreen: :lol: so I (1) hafta takes my pitchers wiv' the lights I gots and (2) it's mostly memories anyways. :lol: The thing about Dingmans is, it is a pretty unique, diagonal waterfall, plus the NPS does not cut back the shrubbery so I expect that every year the thing gets harder because all the good (better anyway) angles are increasingly obscured.

I won't jump Billy, but I profoundly disagree with his basic premise, and I truly feel that you got THE BEST pitcher of Dingmans possible under the circumstances. I also opine that I would not go monochrome because you lose the lovely fall color. I still wish it was my picture! :)

Lots of exposure adjustment, curves, saturation, vibrancy yada yada yada... I will add that this is one reason I'm glad I switched to raw; I think it's a LOT easier to do this with a raw capture, and overall better as well (although I've quit doing raw+jpeg so I don't have a real point of comparison).

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Pixelpixie88 Loc: Northern Minnesota

I wasn't crazy about the left side with the branches. So...I took them out. My version of your lovely photo.

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