Cascade Falls

[Second Hand Pat]

that is significantly higher than I thought. I also assumed you were on a tripod, but I'm thinking at those shutter speeds you were not.

All handheld Ricardo. The terrain was very rough and hiked four miles for these photos.

[SMB2]

Pat I like them all especially since you tried something a little out of your element! The leveled/cropped versions are the best.
So how do you deal with the highlights? Well you can in post somewhat with a brush and the highlight slider and exposure slider over the brightest areas.
When shooting you can use a circular polarizing filter to get rid of some of the glare but watch out for oversaturating the sky and other colors.

So here is the hard part when you are on vacation or visiting an area with your camera. If you can only shoot during mid day then you have to do the best you can or hope for a little cloud cover. Otherwise you have to be there with your tripod at sunrise or sunset. Theses scenes would have much different lighting without the strong "contrasty" elements.
All the tones would be just about equal and the image would turn out much more vibrant. You also have the ability to use slow shutter speeds when the light is low, to add some texture (to your liking) to the water. Not everybody can take the time away from friends and family to be at a site at O Dark Hundred so you do what you can. I think landscapes can be challenging enough without fighting the light so at midday I enjoy the view and take shots if I can't come back. If there is a waterfall involved I try my best to get back there during the "golden" hour or even later.
I love the WF shot and really enjoy spots like that.

Great work. Post some more!

[Second Hand Pat]

Hi Stan, I agreed fully with doing this near sunset or sunrise. Since I was with family on vacation I could only take photos when an opportunity presented itself so did the best I could with what I was offered . I was able to tone down the highlights by playing with the white/black adjustments. This is just for illustration as I do not care for this photo.

From the camera.




After a little adjustment. In this photo there are some bright areas which need some localized editing. I also cropped the bottom a bit to remove the darker areas.

[Second Hand Pat]

Here is an example of an late morning shot. I actually love this photo. Again open for suggestions

[SMB2]

The photo is fine as it is! When making suggestions, they are just for you to play with to see what catches your eye and perhaps broaden your LR horizons.
If I were editing this, I would make a "virtual copy" (command/comma) and try a few things. 1) With the basic adjustments take the highlights all the way to the left and then back off as you see fit. May need to then take the shadows to the right some. Add a touch of contrast, clarity and vibrance. In details add some sharpening and in effects add a bit of vignette.
Then I would take a brush to all the background trees and reduce highlights some more, darken exposure and play with clarity and sharpening (maybe even blurring the trees some). Darkening the BG will pop the church. I would make a new brush and add a bit of saturation to the red foreground tree.
See what happens.

THEN! I would make a second virtual copy and create a B&W....

Once you have the bug, it is hard to separate vacation from photography. You just have to work with what you have.
I just got back from Yellowstone where I was helping with a workshop. I missed a lot of shots, but it was also fun helping the participants and learning from them as well. Lots of 4am mornings and late evenings but it does make one appreciate waiting for the light.


BTW, the waterfall is really cool. Makes you want to get out the waders and stand in the water with a tripod and shoot away!

[rickztahone]

The photo is fine as it is! When making suggestions, they are just for you to play with to see what catches your eye and perhaps broaden your LR horizons.
If I were editing this, I would make a "virtual copy" (command/comma) and try a few things. 1) With the basic adjustments take the highlights all the way to the left and then back off as you see fit. May need to then take the shadows to the right some. Add a touch of contrast, clarity and vibrance. In details add some sharpening and in effects add a bit of vignette.
Then I would take a brush to all the background trees and reduce highlights some more, darken exposure and play with clarity and sharpening (maybe even blurring the trees some). Darkening the BG will pop the church. I would make a new brush and add a bit of saturation to the red foreground tree.
See what happens.

THEN! I would make a second virtual copy and create a B&W....

Once you have the bug, it is hard to separate vacation from photography. You just have to work with what you have.
I just got back from Yellowstone where I was helping with a workshop. I missed a lot of shots, but it was also fun helping the participants and learning from them as well. Lots of 4am mornings and late evenings but it does make one appreciate waiting for the light.


BTW, the waterfall is really cool. Makes you want to get out the waders and stand in the water with a tripod and shoot away!

That is almost 100% exactly what I would do to edit that shot minus the vignetting. I am not a huge fan of that, but other than that, spot on processing for that photo IMHO.

[SMB2]

One correction: I had command/comma for a virtual copy and it is command/apostrophe.
Rick, I will often use a VERY slight darkening vignette to take the eye to the subject but slight is the operative word and it is almost unnoticeable. But I agree it is certainly to taste.

[Second Hand Pat]

Stan, these are the virtual copies. Added a bit of contrast and softened the background and messed with the tree in the foreground. Also lightly touched the end towers on top of the church as they were melting into the background a bit. Before I started these edits I was totally unfamiliar with the adjustment brush. Now I am totally comfortable with it so thanks for that Stan. Do you guys think the blacks are too strong?



and the B and W. Played with this a bit also.

[rickztahone]

I feel like your first shot had more vibrance, and that is what this shot needs to contrast with the Church (?).

Pat, if you wouldn't mind, I can work it to see if I could do something different with it? No pressure, just want to see if the background can be worked on a little more. You have my email, so just let me know

[Second Hand Pat]

This a bit better Ricardo...

[rickztahone]

Yeah actually, that looks much better. The foreground is still not vibrant enough though, not sure if you worked on that on this edit. Beautiful shot btw. I would suggest looking at some good polarizing filters. They help a ton with shots like this, not in post, but when actually taking the shot.

[Second Hand Pat]

And this

[SMB2]

Pat, here is a little trick with the white and black sliders in the basic portion of the develop module:
Hold the option/alt key down and click and hold the cursor on the black slider button. The image screen will turn white. Slide the button to the left until you see the first bits of color (usually black) show up on the screen. When you let go the image will come back and that is usually a good black point. Of course you can add more or less.
With the white slider do the same hold procedure and the screen will turn black. Slide the button to the right until you see the first bits of color and then back off until the screen is black again. That is usually the best white setting with out anything blown out.

I agree with Rick, the BG needs more vibrance and to be a little darker. The grass and red tree a slight bit more color.

The B&W conversion need some more contrast.
Try some of the B&W PRESETS in the left column in the develop module to see if you like any of those.

All this seems like a lot of trouble, but when you start to get the hang of it, these adjustments come quickly and you can get an image pretty straight in less than 3-5 minutes.

[SMB2]

OK, that came up while I was typing. Much better.

Here is something fun to try that is new in LR 6. Under EFFECTS in the develop module, the last slider is dehaze. Try moving this to the right a bit and see what happens.

[Second Hand Pat]

Stan, look at post #27 and perhaps this is a better B&W.