Escarpment Wall, Red Hill Creek Gorge
On the recent hike into Hamilton, Ontario’s Albion Falls with fellow Bando de Kvar (www.flickr.com/groups/2472126@N24/ ) member Paul (www.flickr.com/photos/41474913@N05/ ), I paused for a short time a some (50-60 metres) downstream from the falls to capture the layers of the Niagara Escarpment exposed by erosion as the Red Hill Creek plunged over the falls and cut through the escarpment on its way North to Lake Ontario some 8km North of here. So far the winter has been dull, grey and wet with snow being decidedly rare. On this day, the weather was holding true to form and as a result of the recent rain, as well as the intermittent showers that day, the walls of the Escarpment gorge were damp, bringing out the colours of the various layers of sediment that form the Niagara Escarpment. To try and soften the look of the rough, fast-flowing water in the creek, I elected to use a 10-stop Neutral Density/GND filter to extend the exposure significantly. Consequently, the textures of the smooth water and rough, detailed gorge wall’s layers, formed a nice contrast. - JW
Date Taken:
Tech Details:
Taken using a tripod-mounted Nikon D7100 fitted with a Nikkor 50mm f/1.8 D lense fitted with a 10-stop Neutral Density/ND filter, Auto WB, Manual exposure mode, f/7.1, 30 sec. PP in free Open Source RAWTherapee from Nikon RAW/NEF source file: scale image up to 9000x6000, adjust exposure to about 1 stop over as-shot, increase contrast and Chromaticity in L-A-B mode, enable Graduated Neutral Density/GND tool and rotate and shift it to cover the flowing water but not the gorge wall (to any significant extent) and then darken the water to better match the tonality of the wall, enable shadows-highlights to recover highlights and slightly boost the shadows, boost vibrance slightly, adjust colour balance to slightly warmer than as-shot, sharpen, save. PP in free Open Source GIMP: use the Levels tool in auto mode to simultaneously adjust the overall tonality and colour balance, slightly boost vibrance to clean up the colours, use the colour balance tool to remove a small residual green cast, sharpen, save, scale image to 6000x4000, sharpen, save, add fine black-and-white/B&W frame, add bar and text on left, save, scale image to 1800 wide for posting, sharpen very slightly, save.
Escarpment Wall, Red Hill Creek Gorge
On the recent hike into Hamilton, Ontario’s Albion Falls with fellow Bando de Kvar (www.flickr.com/groups/2472126@N24/ ) member Paul (www.flickr.com/photos/41474913@N05/ ), I paused for a short time a some (50-60 metres) downstream from the falls to capture the layers of the Niagara Escarpment exposed by erosion as the Red Hill Creek plunged over the falls and cut through the escarpment on its way North to Lake Ontario some 8km North of here. So far the winter has been dull, grey and wet with snow being decidedly rare. On this day, the weather was holding true to form and as a result of the recent rain, as well as the intermittent showers that day, the walls of the Escarpment gorge were damp, bringing out the colours of the various layers of sediment that form the Niagara Escarpment. To try and soften the look of the rough, fast-flowing water in the creek, I elected to use a 10-stop Neutral Density/GND filter to extend the exposure significantly. Consequently, the textures of the smooth water and rough, detailed gorge wall’s layers, formed a nice contrast. - JW
Date Taken:
Tech Details:
Taken using a tripod-mounted Nikon D7100 fitted with a Nikkor 50mm f/1.8 D lense fitted with a 10-stop Neutral Density/ND filter, Auto WB, Manual exposure mode, f/7.1, 30 sec. PP in free Open Source RAWTherapee from Nikon RAW/NEF source file: scale image up to 9000x6000, adjust exposure to about 1 stop over as-shot, increase contrast and Chromaticity in L-A-B mode, enable Graduated Neutral Density/GND tool and rotate and shift it to cover the flowing water but not the gorge wall (to any significant extent) and then darken the water to better match the tonality of the wall, enable shadows-highlights to recover highlights and slightly boost the shadows, boost vibrance slightly, adjust colour balance to slightly warmer than as-shot, sharpen, save. PP in free Open Source GIMP: use the Levels tool in auto mode to simultaneously adjust the overall tonality and colour balance, slightly boost vibrance to clean up the colours, use the colour balance tool to remove a small residual green cast, sharpen, save, scale image to 6000x4000, sharpen, save, add fine black-and-white/B&W frame, add bar and text on left, save, scale image to 1800 wide for posting, sharpen very slightly, save.