Bond Falls is located
near Watersmeet, Michigan. In fall color, it can be
magical. Nancy, Les, Don and our 2007 UP Workshop
group visited the falls for a second time on
October 1, a lovely overcast afternoon, I recall.
After photographing the upper section, I was on my way to the lower falls, when, halfway down, I was stopped in my tracks by a view of the falls framed by tree limbs and leaves in fall color, with a yellow maple glowing above the water in the background. It took only a few seconds to climb over the railing onto the rocks to capture the image.
After several tries, I knew I could use expert help. Not only did the composition not feel right, but the exposure difference between the foreground (deep shade) and the middle (bright water) was too great to capture with one shot, even with neutral density filters. Nancy was not too far from me, so, I yelled for help! After several “would-you-considers” from Nancy, I finally settled on a composition which used the tree trunk and leaves as framing and foreground, quite different than what I had first seen. We decided to deal with the exposure extremes problem by taking multiple shots and combining them into one composite image using Photoshop.
Because of the “stack and blend” Photoshop technique, I didn’t know until later when I processed the two images that the final result was a real winner for me, an image that I will like for a long, long time. And, one that brings me back to this magical place, and all my good friends with Photography With Heart.
Equipment: Canon 1dsM2; 24-70 lens; f/22, 2 sec foreground/1 sec middle; Gitzo tripod; RRS ball head; Lee n.d. filter. Photo assistant – Nancy Rotenberg!
After photographing the upper section, I was on my way to the lower falls, when, halfway down, I was stopped in my tracks by a view of the falls framed by tree limbs and leaves in fall color, with a yellow maple glowing above the water in the background. It took only a few seconds to climb over the railing onto the rocks to capture the image.
After several tries, I knew I could use expert help. Not only did the composition not feel right, but the exposure difference between the foreground (deep shade) and the middle (bright water) was too great to capture with one shot, even with neutral density filters. Nancy was not too far from me, so, I yelled for help! After several “would-you-considers” from Nancy, I finally settled on a composition which used the tree trunk and leaves as framing and foreground, quite different than what I had first seen. We decided to deal with the exposure extremes problem by taking multiple shots and combining them into one composite image using Photoshop.
Because of the “stack and blend” Photoshop technique, I didn’t know until later when I processed the two images that the final result was a real winner for me, an image that I will like for a long, long time. And, one that brings me back to this magical place, and all my good friends with Photography With Heart.
Equipment: Canon 1dsM2; 24-70 lens; f/22, 2 sec foreground/1 sec middle; Gitzo tripod; RRS ball head; Lee n.d. filter. Photo assistant – Nancy Rotenberg!
