Rainbow Falls

Quite a magical shot and one you have to stare at as it seems to have mysterious shapes within. Beautiful composition and beautiful lighting.

Hehe Doug, what a discovery...spicy:P!!! Figure thats being washed by soft water waves...

This is magical. The last light really creates the impression of hidden lamps under the waterfalls.

The light splashing on the scene makes the photo truly original. We've all seen and taken long exposures of waterfalls, but the light here is extraordinary and invites the eye to look further, revealing interesting shapes and lines within the composition. I also like the rainbows within the lit areas - curiously, the colors tend towards the yellows and greens in the spectrum. A beautiful photograph, one that I think many people would happily hang on a wall.

Very good work! I've tried to accomplish a similar shot before and failed miserably, so I know you worked hard for this one. The exposure was perfect to establish both the contrast you were going for, and the perfect amound of water blur for this particular shot, just enough blur to enhance the water, but not enough to overwhelm the particular feeling of the rainbow being in the shot.

 

Kudos for the lack of manipulation.

 

7/7

wonderful shot, beatiful light and colors, has magic, congratulations

Gorgeous time of day & perfect shutter speed for the falling water

Now that rainbow really makes this shot something special ,a little fuller rainbow would be better , but this shot shows alot of skill ,not easily done . Also about as pretty as one can find ,beautiful water flow and light , a masterpiece , congrats Marc on POW ,I figured something like this photo was coming after some of the recent ones we have had on POW . A breath of fresh air , Robert

Congratulations, Marc. Obviously a great photo, and greatly original in terms of light. And congrats on your amazing portfolio as well. I read in your original replies in this thread that you try to compose as well as you can within a format, and that you often crop your images later on. So do I, and so do many of us - no problem with that of course -, but for the sake of an in-depth discussion, I will add, that I was wondering what this POW looked like before your crop. I'm asking this because, to me, this POW's composition is not optimal - whereas everything else seems quite perfect to me. I do realize you probably had little time to compose here, and I wonder by the way how long the light stayed this way, but I feel the dark rocks at the bottom edge create a third dark "island" in the frame which takes my eye away from the light. Not the best choice for the final composition, in my view. I'd perhaps even prefer a square format without these bottom rocks, or maybe I might prefer the original composition - uncropped, that is... It would be great the see the original full frame. Possible...? Of course, even with a small glitch in its composition, I still find this to be a great photo, but let's perhaps try to exchange some opinions on composition all together...

Hey Marc,

 

About the photo, the original crop featured even more of those dark rocks down there. I think we just simply disagree on the best possible comp here. I like the lowest rocks for balance, personally. But that's not the first time I've recieved a similar critique on this photo. You know how it goes, not one composition is always going to please everyone, etc. When I've printed this one recently, I've pulled more detail out of those lowest rocks, which does help a bit. BTW - thanks for spelling your name right ;-)

Now did I wake up in a Wonderland? It's really refreshing week! I just love the scene. I mean, how did you do it? Where did you find such a paradise? The rainbow rays shining through, the rocks is bright and wet, expressing its structure which is very attractive. This is truly a place for the lovers! I wonder, are you in love?!

Hello Marc. I have been doing what you explain in the page www... about achiving better results with the sharp and it goes O.K. Thank you very and best regards. Eugenio.

I was delighted to find that this was not manipulated. Ordinarily I would not care one way or the other, but it is nice to see a photo of nature that is, well, natural.

 

The overall composition is striking, a fact which is obvious even when (or perhaps especially when) one is looking at the thumbnail photo.

 

--Lannie

Marc:

I like to see more low dark rocks which I think it will bring more stable felling to the composition.

 

To compare with the original and posted one and to let us know which is better,if you wanna share it to us,please show it up!

 

BTW,many people like to shoot and good at it,named Marc ^^

Wonderful Image. I realise this is not very articulate but I just love the way this makes me feel. The composition is strong the exposure length is perfect, but it is that rainbow which is sublime. If you don't mind me asking, was this a fleeting phenomenon or was it stable for a period of time? It looks so filled with magic I envision it as momentary.

Gordon, thank you. This is a fleeting phenomenon that only occurs for about an hour and only for a few weeks each summer. The rainbows were quickly changing locations across the falls as the light behind me shifted through the trees.

Thanks for that information, it fleshes the image out a bit for me. If this was in my neighbourhood I know were I would be spending a hour each day for those couple of weeks.

Marc,

 

This is a brilliant shot, love the fact that it is unmanipulated in any way and aside from that your porfolio is to die for.

 

You have the dream career and know your craft to a tee.

I would love to know how you discovered this light show and how many times you had to return in order to capture it. I know you said that you emerse yourself in nature but what are the chances of happening across this during a trek.

 

Now as an novice I am curious to know why you chose to use f8 as your setting. I understand how DOF works but why not f4.5 or f16 etc, would f3.5 render too much of the scene out of focus.

I know I am picking your brain but that is the only way to learn, hope you don't mind.

Hi David. In this case depth of field wasn't much of a consideration because I was focused on a near-vertical, mostly flat surface of flowing water. Still, f/3.5 would have left such a narrow DOF at 200mm that I would have lost focus foreground or background.

 

I did not want to use a very small aperature like f/16 for a variety of reasons. Mostly, f/8 allowed me to keep an optimal ISO of 100 while retaining the shutter speed I desired for the capture of moving water. F/16, of course, would have slowed down my shutter quite a bit or caused me to change ISO's to retain the same shutter speed. Also, an aperature in the f/8 - f/11 range with most lenses is refered to as a 'sweet spot' or, the best possible aperature range, where the lens performs at the highest quality. This is another discussion entirely, but it is essentially due to the diffraction of light passing through the lens at extreme aperatures.

Thank you all for commenting. I will not be available to recieve questions the remainder of the week, as I will be out in the field shooting.

 

Marc

Thanks Marc, that is of great help to me.

Dave

Wonderful use of light with movement of the water. Great sense of creativity and pattern.

What was the shutter/fstop on this? Absolutely love it!

An excellent mix of light and water, truly beautiful.

This is the first picture I have seen as I have only just joined the site, but was a beautiful and inspiring photograph it is. I would be proud to take such a beautiful image.

Oh, and following on from other peoples comments, I too can make out the shape of a body in the water, very strange!