chuckalmarez

In the Beginning . . _

Moving water at Great Falls.

Moving water at Great Falls.
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Jun, 2013

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Awards

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Outstanding Creativity

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Behind The Lens

Location

This is a composite created from two images: the water flow in the foreground and the clouds in the background ( the sun with light flare was added in post-processing. The water image was made at Gaithwright Dam located in SW Virginia. Several time a year the dam gates are opened to allow the large outflow of water to help clean up the downstream watershed, The amount of water released during this process results in a lot of whitewater across the entire width of the river -- something that wouldn't be seen under normal circumstances. The cloud background is just one of the many dramatic sky images I've taken for possible use in a composite just like this, or just as a dramatic stand-along image.

Time

The water image was made in the early morning hours, with a shutter speed of 1/8 sec @ f/18 using a 17mm lens on my Canon 5D Mark III. The cloudy sky could have been taken at any time of day when the light and conditions presented themselves.

Lighting

The light for the sky was very dramatic with the stormy clouds. The light for the water image was a bit overcast so I needed to increase Clarity to get more contrast in the water. The sun and flare were added in post-processing to add a bit more drama to the scene. A final step would be to add some color grading to integrate the tone and color of the two main images.

Equipment

I used a 17-40mm lens at 17mm on my Canon 5D Mark III which was tripod mounted. The shutter speed was 1/8 sec @ f/18 with an ISO of 200. I was shooting several long-exposures that morning so probably also was using a remote release.

Inspiration

The dramatic flow of water with white caps inspire the original capture and viewing the images in post-processing got me thinking about removing the less-then-exciting background of the far shore and tree line. Then it became a question of what to put in that area. I searched a bit through my files to find something appropriate and settled on the single dramatic cloud image that I had made at a different time. The two images together seemed very primal and untouched by civilization to the title resulted from the pairing of the two images.

Editing

Basic exposure and contrast on the foreground image of water, then added a mask to remove the background of the original image. For the sky image just darkened and added contrast, then added a mask to help blend the two images at the horizon. Added a sun-flare image image at the horizon to add a point of interest. Finally added a color grading layer to help "blend" the two images into a coherent whole.

In my camera bag

Canon 5D Mark III, 17-40mm, 24-105mm, 100mm Macro, 18-300mm, basic tripod .

Feedback

Be open to capture interesting images that might not be worth standing alone but that might help build a composite.

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chuckalmarez

chuckalmarez

In the Beginning . . _

Moving water at Great Falls.

Behind The Lens

See more amazing photos, follow chuckalmarez

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