In the harsh sunshine, we were failing at photographing a waterfall for what it looked like and decided instead to photograph it for what it signified. That helped.
The Appalachian weather in October was perfect for being outdoors and hiking—clear blue skies and temperatures in the mid-70's. The conditions were not ideal for photography however. The featureless blue skies were not very interesting in the more expansive scenes and the more intimate scenes suffered from harsh highlights and inky shadows.
At Iris Arts, we strive for detail in both the highlights and the darker areas of our photographs—no harsh and featureless bright areas and no deep and scary shadows. Of course, outdoor lighting is not always soft enough for detailed highlights and open shadows. When it is not, other adjustments need to be made.
Bright, sunny day—difficult conditions for representational photography. The result is harsh—despite aggressive adjustments and masking in the RAW processor. I could probably do better, but felt it would be simpler to abandon the notion of recording the waterfall and instead concentrate on highlights and go for metaphor. Photo: © Donald J. Rommes
Today's modern digital cameras can capture an enormous brightness range. With attention to the exposure—especially to the brightest areas of the scene—detail in the highlights can be preserved and there will still be enough information in the file to bring out a great deal of detail in the shadows.
Sometimes, the brightness range of a scene is too extreme for the sensor. In that case, either detail in the highlights or detail in the shadows must be sacrificed. One way around that would be to take one exposure for the highlights and a second for the shadows, and "blend" the two in the computer. A tripod is usually required to avoid moving the camera between shots.
Another approach would be to photograph just the highlights or just the shadows.
We took that second option in our recent trip to photograph waterfalls.
Brilliant sunshine and blank blue skies dominated the weather during a recent trip. Good photographs of broad scenes were possible early or late, but for most of the day, the light was simply too contrasty for waterfall photography. Water levels were high, so the falls and cascades were both boisterous and powerful.
Unable to get a good representational photograph of the whole falls in the harsh daylight, we cut our losses and went for a metaphor of power and energy. Photo: © Donald J. Rommes
We made a number of exposures of the falls and their background with the intention of merging the two. However, the blurring of white water on the exposure for the shadows made blending a real challenge.
Instead, we decided to photograph only the bright areas—the cascades, currents, and waves of the falling water. By doing so, we could limit the brightness range (by eliminating the shadows) and try to capture the power and energy of the falls—in other words, photograph as metaphor instead of record.
I wish I could say we had the idea of metaphor in mind all along, but in our case, necessity was the mother of metaphor.
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