Since I have been interested in photography I have wanted to capture the movement of water with some milky white effect in the flow. My main intention was to experiment with different shutter speeds at Lumsdale Falls in order to achieve this goal.
I have been studying books and magazines throughout this course and one book that I purchased entitled "How to Photograph Absolutely Everything" is by TomAng. Herein I can look up tips from the sections that apply to my themes of nature and close ups. What I like about this book is that I can use it for reference purposes on anything I choose to take pictures of because it has a broad range of the basic tips and perspectives covering all subjects in one book.
I learned that waterfalls can be difficult to photograph, even for the professionals, because the lighting can be tricky. This is because it combines deep shadows with bright areas like dazzling snowy-white waters. Additionally, to access the best vantage points can be challenging, if not dangerous, and I did find this. The secret is to take my time, understand the environment and wait for good light, and to realise that less of a scene can be more.
He took this scene using normal focal length to take in some of the surroundings but to keep the falls as the main subject. Using a shutter of 1\60 he was able to capture some water droplets without making the flow too static. He used a medium to high iso setting.
shutter 0.3 aperture f14 iso 100 focal L 60mm
As in his picture, I compare mine here because I have framed the water to slide through the centre of the scene, albeit mine is taken from a different and I think more interesting viewpoint in my opinion. His straight on view does include a bottom part of the falls to give the more expanse of it though, and it would have been too difficult and dangerous for him to climb down those steep sides to take similar angles to mine. I was lucky my venue gave more advantageous view points.
Composition:
The compositions are similar in that they both hold similar colours and have lines to draw the eye through the whole scene. The main subject (the water) is the draw line in both images, starting in the background, coming down through the scene, to the bottom foreground showing some surrounding either side. Where his surroundings are mostly greenery, mine are mostly rocks and where they also differ is that mine is more of a cropped in look, making the water start at the edge of my frame (top and bottom) and does not include its end. His fuller view scene however captures some background surroundings beyond the start of the fall and shows end calmness of the water at the bottom. Both images also show colour and shape and include water engulfed twig/branches in its later stages of fall.
My close shot is dramatic in that it highlights the speed of the flow, just as his does, with not too much surroundings either side to detract from that sense of speed, but incorporates just enough to give an idea of the type of venue in which it was taken. The eye is immediately drawn to the waters as in TomAng's and this was my intention and focus.
Lighting:
I used a lower iso setting to TomAng's for the following reasons:
I read somewhere it is always better to use the lowest possible iso.
I had the sun light directly shining on the falls.
I wanted to add drama and impact.
I had set the aperture to attain some details throughout, so I knew it would result in the camera choosing a slower shutter speed for correct exposure, giving me what I wanted to obtain milk.
As previously mentioned lighting can be tricky and here you see deep shadows to the right of both images. I think this can add to the feel of a picture though and sometimes aid its mystery. I prefer the lighting in my scene, firstly because I love dappled effects, like a painter has just dotted light here and there, but also the brightness of how the sun has caught the main part of the falls adds to its drama.
In such high contrast subjects where the camera can wrongly assume there is more light available than there is, because of the dazzly white waters for instance, it compensates by either increasing the shutter speed or stopping down the aperture. Photographers can choose to either carry light meters to combat this or use compensating controls on their camera ie. to compensate by over exposing slightly, say 2/3 of a stop over for bright whites. Here I relied on the camera's automatic light-metering system and I had it set on the Evaluative metering mode.
My slow shutter speed doesn't really show any water droplets to speak of, because my aim was to attain the smoothness of milk rather than the individual droplet texture and I was pleased that I managed to get the results I wanted. Dramatic scenery can work well in either the landscape or portrait formats; my preference in photography is always landscape first and here this shows, where as TomAng went for the portrait. His portrait format does capture more expanse of the water, a more full view overall because of the shape of the subject ie. the waters come down.
With this type of subject you can obtain sharp images of moving water with short shutter times but the results may look too static. Longer exposures give the milky effect and a sense of movement, so it is best to experiment with different shutter speeds to see which effect you prefer.
It is a good idea to explore the area because on first sight the obvious 'see' to take may not turn out be the best one and a position that is not promising at first may be perfect once the sun has moved a little. I should explore slowly, carefully and safely. From a health and safety point I should be aware of eagerness to stomp through the waters on route to instinctive vantage points, where water covered rocks may be very slippery and hazardous to my equipment and myself if I were to slip and fall in.
I took other shots of the falls from different vantage points:-
For these two shots I moved further down the falls each time (albeit on all fours) gaining more and more surroundings in the frame and lengthening the view of the waters. I still wanted to retain smooth milk but wanted to also capture its patterns passing over different rocks, in effect taking in more bright white stages. I have more mottled light patterns in these images along the rocks because I have included more rocks. I still also have some deep shadows, which I like because they give mood and some the impression of hidden caves.
shutter 0.6 aperture f14 iso 100 focal L 28mm
These are my favourite images of the day and I like to give names to scenes I like best. I think I managed to capture the things I was looking for in a waterfall setting: impact, mood, milky flow patterns, mosey green rock surroundings, and I like the light that I was lucky enough to capture at the time. I had to wade through the water to get this image, with the help of another's hand and tripod, so great thanks goes to them!
I took a total of 20 shots of this same scene with different shutter settings ranging from 0.3 of a second to 1 second, and as I did so the light was changing too with the sun. You can see there is more mood in the top scene because it is darker, making the falls stand outside the scene more (if you sit back) but the bottom one shows more detail in the rocks, due to the slightly longer shutter and the fact that I stepped back one pace to include forefront sun lit rocks, from sun coming from the left. I wonder if this could be slightly distracting the eye from the main subject of the falls though? All the shots were taken with the Canon EOS 5D with 24-105mm lens and the use of a tripod.
What would I do differently next time:
Not a lot as I am very pleased with the images and I took my time over taking them. I could experiment with different settings on the camera ie. maybe try out the spot metering if I thought the shadows were too dark, whereby it would take the light reading from just one specific area.
I could experiment increasing the iso setting too, as I did keep that on iso 100 throughout, for reasons explained above.
I could also experiment more with different apertures because I held that on the same f14 at the falls, once I had found a look I liked ( by checking the initial shots on the camera).
I would like to carry a lighter tripod around on full day trips, because I hadn't managed to make up my mind about one beforehand.
I might have something to drink during the day, as we were that engrossed, only stopping for fish and chips, until early evening, when we had some refreshing drink....I was so thirsty! All in all I enjoyed a great day with great company.
More images from TomAng's book and website:-
For me TomAng's work here is about stretch and perspective. A subject stretching throughout its frame, (be it the water fall, trees, cloud formation, or flower show), and/or with a stretched perspective of view, stretching upwards, horizontally or on the diagonal.
My image below, named aptly so, was taken at Matlock Bath and shows the stretch of the ducks wings outward, the stretch and depth of the stepped path from the foreground reaching back to the stretch of the bridge in the background horizontally.
shutter 1/1328 aperture f4.0 iso 200 FL 102mm
I love Tom Ang's water scene above for its design and colour. I had planned to take more water scenes for my level 2 work than I did during level 1 and thus have been researching images containing water.
I was experimenting when I took 'Magic Wand' (below), a shot of a brook close to home, then ended up really liking the image for its simplicity. I used the same aperture that I had used when taking my water fall scenes at Matlock Bath, because I thought those had taken well and had given me the level of detail I now sought again. I shot the scene at dusk into the sun and because the brook was part shaded by trees, the light diffused nicely. This is a crop of the original that had a bit of fence showing at the top, which I decided wasn't necessary.
An erray of 'lighted' shades of green is my composition to compare with TomAng's and though mine does not actually show the water colours, it does shows the suns light reflecting on it , and its brightness aspects are what set the scene off. Just as with TomAng's bright centre draws the eye inward, then out and around, I think the eye is drawn to the high reflected parts of mine first then follow up the brook through the scene. Tom's composition shows his greenery and lines stretching throughout his frame horizontally whereas mine is on the vertical, with the brook line stretching in my image centre to lead the eye through. I was pleased to see a star had formed in the reflections, which to me looked like a magic wand.
shutter 1/8 sec aperture f14 iso 100 Fl 88mm
I think this image gives a look of stretched blur which lends to impressionism.
hi were where the falls exactly as i wouldn't mind taking some shots of these too,in your shots you have managed to blur the water and all the other look quite sharp and as for the light it looks pretty good to me
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