Another Waterfall shot

[™Ken Kruse™]

Open to all areas of discussion.

[Kevin Childress]

I think that turned out rather well, and I do think the darker presentation works for this place. The only suggestions I might make are related to post processing.  Take a look at the bit of fern in the foreground between 5 and 6 o'clock, and then along the edge of the left-hand rock. There's just a bit of CA along those edges that could be removed. And then look at the right-most area of water that is flowing across the rock at bottom/right. The right half of that area of water also shows slight purple color. I might make a feather selection around that bit of water and see if the hues can be pushed back toward aqua/blue/cyan, something like that. 

[kenfowkes]

I very much like how the dark tones of the land frame and emphasize the lively flowing water. For me the turquoise color lies in a very nice place on the spectrum between realistic and fantastical. I know you aim for romanticized reality, and I'd say you hit the mark beautifully with that turquoise.

The orange tones up top complement the turquoise beautifully, but end up drawing my attention up there a bit more than I think is ideal. I think you could crop off some from the top and the composition would still be very nice and flowing. Or maybe just darkening the top, leaving the foliage as-is.

One of the challenges I struggle with in forest shots like this is finding the simple composition in all the complexity.It's something you manage very well and this is a great example. I'm particularly enjoying the delicate foliage in front of the water midway down on the left. What for me would have been an obstruction, you turned into a feature!

[™Ken Kruse™]

Thanks to both of you Kevin and Ken. 

I completely missed the CA that you pointed out Kevin, I'll have to go back to my original version to see if I missed it there also.

I too was bothered by the brightness up top Ken and even corrected it. I actually darkened it further than this "edition" shows but backed off because it was starting to look weird, I hadn't considered cropping but will give that a try.

Thanks again guys!

[kurtisj123]

I like the color and the processing a lot.  The only thing that bothers me (a little) is the fact that the left branch of the waterfall is partially obscured.

kurtisj123

On Thursday, December 10, 2015 at 5:53:14 AM UTC-6, ™Ken Kruse™ wrote:

[™Ken Kruse™]

 kurtisj123 wrote:

I like the color and the processing a lot.  The only thing that bothers me (a little) is the fact that the left branch of the waterfall is partially obscured.

Thank you for the comments kurtisj123. I agree with you about the branches. Unfortunately the risk to life and property was too great, if not impossible, to grab the shot without the branches. I hadn't thought about cloning them out until now, I suppose I'll have to give that more thought.

Thanks again for joining in, hopefully you'll continue to participate.

 

[Lady GooGoo La La]

Nice shot, Ken, my heart likes it but my head says, that colour water not usually possible under those conditions.

This appear to be taken on overcast day so no blue sky, the water nor bottom actually that colour, so how does the water get that colour? Many small white bubbles in the water can reflect colour, but reflections from what or where?

[Kevin Childress]

Ken may be able to offer a scientific explanation for the color of the water, which I cannot. But I can offer testimony, having been there with Ken when he took this photo, that the water really does look that way practically irregardless of atmospheric conditions. Ken did a nice job processing this image to keep the water looking as natural as possible.

[™Ken Kruse™]

On Thursday, February 4, 2016 at 11:32:53 PM UTC-8, Lady GooGoo La La wrote:

Nice shot, Ken, my heart likes it but my head says, that colour water not usually possible under those conditions.

This appear to be taken on overcast day so no blue sky, the water nor bottom actually that colour, so how does the water get that colour? Many small white bubbles in the water can reflect colour, but reflections from what or where?

 Thank you for your comments Lady. When processing this I didn't do any local color correction but aimed for neutral colors in the whitest areas of the water. I do remember Kevin remarking how blue the water looked the day I took this so it was definitely blue. I did bump up the vibrancy which may have slightly exaggerated the blue but no more than I do on any other image. For a possible explanation see below; 

The water looks blue because red, orange and yellow (long wavelength light) are absorbed more strongly by water than is blue (short wavelength light). So when white light from the sky enters the ocean, it is mostly the blue that gets returned. My guess is that polluted water adds some of that yellow back in so we are accustomed to not seeing the blue as much.

[kenfowkes]

Even still, we usually don't see blue in clear water streams because the streams run over rocks with dark tones from the warm end of the spectrum. Although much of the rock here seems dark, I notice some white rock near the water line mid-right. I wonder if perhaps there is enough white rock under the water to let us see the blue.

The other cause of blue in water is "rock flower" from glaciers, but I don't suppose this water comes from glaciers.

[David Humphreys]

Another significant factor is the presence of dissolved limestone in the water which adds to the blue colour.
Not too far away from this photo's location is a company that produces calcium carbonate from local limestone.
http://www.carbonates.com/

[Lady GooGoo La La]

Whether white from highly oxygenated turbulent water or calcium carbonate, the colour is reflected from something on a white background, the question I have is what!  I believe there has been no colour alteration but an interesting effect. The green plants and ferns may attribute to hue...just a guess!

With regard to Kens explanation, in deep water long wavelengths rapidly lost through absorption or reflection and only short blue green wavelengths can penetrate depth. So everything appear blue-green, not the case here, water too shallow.

Doesn't matter nice shot Ken! ;-)