The water curtain
For a long time I dreamed of visiting Iceland. Finally, my budget allowed this journey. I finally could take pictures of the most inspiring places for landscape...
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For a long time I dreamed of visiting Iceland. Finally, my budget allowed this journey. I finally could take pictures of the most inspiring places for landscape photographers. This one has been taken at the Skógafoss. It is one of Iceland's biggest and most photographed waterfalls with a width of 25 metres and a drop of 60 m. Once I set up my tripod, I ran into the frame and posed in my red raincoat on the small stone very close to the waterfall. After that, the other tourists surrounding me imitated me. I waited until a beautiful girl posed nicely in front of it. Of course, I chose the girl shot, not my selfie for the portfolio. ;)
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Sep, 2016Views
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Awards
Contest Finalist in People And Water Photo Contest 2017
People's Choice in Beautiful Waterfalls Photo Contest
Contest Finalist in Beautiful Waterfalls Photo Contest
Contest Finalist in Splash Photo Contest
Featured
Contest Finalist in The Creative Landscape Photo Contest
Peer Award
Superb Composition
Absolute Masterpiece
Top Choice
Outstanding Creativity
Magnificent Capture
All Star
Genius
Superior Skill
Virtuoso
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Impressed
Top Ranks
Top 10 rankTop 10 rank week 1
Top 10 rankTop 10 rank week 2Top 10 rank week 1
Same photographer See allBehind The Lens
Behind The Lens
Location
For a long time I dreamed of visiting Iceland. Finally, my budget allowed me to take this journey. This picture has been taken at Skógafoss. It is one of Iceland's biggest and most photographed waterfalls with a width of 25 metres and a drop of 60 metres. Once I set up my tripod, I ran into the frame and posed in my red raincoat on the small stone very close to the waterfall. After that, the other tourists surrounding me imitated me. I waited until a beautiful girl posed nicely in front of it. Of course, I chose the girl shot, not my selfie for the portfolio. ;)Time
The picture has been taken during the late afternoon of the day, before the golden hour. My friend and I were waiting for the sunlight to hit waterfall and to capture afterwards a sunset shot. While he was taking a break, I still kept shooting trying to find a different more creative and personal approach for this well photographed place.Lighting
To be honest, the lighting was really bad. It was an overcast day and we experienced a lot of rain, as basically the entire week we spent there. The good thing is though that the light was naturally softened through the clouds. That definitely did improve the shooting conditions for a picture including a human element. No harsh shadows, everything equally lit.Equipment
At this time, I was still shooting with my Canon 7D. After this trip, I sold it and switched to Fujifilm. Anyway, the shot has been taken using the Canon 7D and the Sigma 17-50 F2.8 lens mounted on a MeFOTO BackPacker Travel Tripod. EXIF: ƒ/8.0 | 50.0 mm | 1/160 | ISO100Inspiration
As I said, I wanted to step away from typical landscape photography and try a different approach in order to stand out from the masses and the classic shots of Skógafoss. Usually, you would use a wide angle lens and try to capture as much in one frame as possible. But the magnitude of this waterfall caught me from the first moment. I stepped closer to it, embracing the sprays from the water splashes in my face (especially on my glasses haha). And I realised that the waterfall looks like a curtain and not as flat and linear as most of the waterfalls. It brought along huge amounts of water but the water seemed to fall in pillar shaped patterns.Editing
First of all, I merged the HDR in Lightroom and bounced the light for basic adjustments. I cooled the image using a very cold white balance to create this full dark blue water tone. In order to enhance the pillar and curtain shapes, I really pushed the picture to its limits with local adjustment in Photoshop. I used several luminosity masks as well as dynamic contrasts to bring out every little detail of the shot, especially on the water. As canon sensors are not known for a big dynamic range, the picture became very quickly very grainy, even though I captured it as an HDR. After I was happy with the shapes, contrasts and colors, I ran strong noise reductions but masked them in individually (Inverted high pass / Nik Collection Dfine). For the finish, I sharpened the girl to stand out perfectly from the blurry background.In my camera bag
Normally, I use a Fujifilm X-T1camera with the Fujinon XF 16-55mm f/2.8 R LM WR and the Fujinon XF 23mm f/2.0 weather sealed lenses. That way, I don't have to worry about my gear and can just focus on taking pictures. Recently, I also added the 12mm f/2.0 lens to my gear bag, just in case of needing a really wide angle. Last but not least, I carry with me small gadgets like prisms, a very bright flashlight and other small artificial light sources, to create some "special effects" already right in the camera.Feedback
Wait for a nice girl or bring your girlfriend with you, let her pose in front of the waterfall on the little stone and that's it. Nothing complex. ;)
