Dave Morrow Photography: Naiad's Ghost - Spirit Falls, Washington

Thursday, December 12, 2013

Naiad's Ghost - Spirit Falls, Washington

Last night I was on Drink and Click with Lotus Carroll and Juan Gonzalez along with some other great photographers discussing star / night / Milky Way Photography. I have included the YouTube recording below for anyone that missed out. There were some really nice pictures shared from everyone on the show.

During the show I also make an announcement about a special project Michael Shainblum and I have been working on for a while. So tune in!


UPDATE: I'm holding an Online Star Photography Post Processing Group Workshop this Sunday for anyone that wants to follow along as I process a star shot from start to finish. Full details, and sign up HERE.


The Shot
This was another one of those shots that I just couldn't get right. Going back and back again to make more final adjustments it just wasn't happening. After a month of sitting on my computer I opened it up today and decided it was done. For anyone that hasn't been to Spirit Falls yet it seems to be getting much more popular. The location really isn't hard to find, but the hike down can be a bit tricky / dangerous. TJ Thorne did a nice Behind the Scenes Write up and Video that I looked at before venturing down there on my own.

Since I've seen so many pictures coming out of the area, many of them being vertical compositions, I wanted to try the horizontal view. It took some hanging off ledges and setting up my tripod in some strange configurations, but I finally came away with this shot that I snapped off  an hour before sunset as the light painted the trees in color.

Here are the post processing details for anyone interested!

Post Processing Info ( Grab some discount codes to the programs below at bottom of About Me Page )
Processing Time: 1 hour
Music: Lee Burridge Burning Man Set
Drink: A few different Ninkasi beers

Lightroom 4
  • Two RAW files were used to make this picture. One for the full scene and then one for the water movement.
  • Lighten up the shadows and blacks
  • adjust white balance
  • + Vibrance & - Saturation 
  • Sync both RAW files for all settings
  • Final adjustments using clarity brush on the "water" RAW file.
  • Export both pictures to TIFF
 Photoshop CS6
  •  Blend both picture files together using layer masks.
  • Apply Tony Kuypers Luminosity Masking Actions & Techniques to bring out the "mid-tones" and "highlights" in the water and color in the trees 
  • Curves to selectively balance light across the entire photo.
  • Apply color correction using "Color Balance" adjustment.
  • Apply selective color balance to the water and the trees.
  • Nik Color Efex Pro Contrast, Sunlight, and warmth / glow selectively through out the photo.
  • Nik Output Sharpener ( selectively )
  • Noiseware Professional by Imagenomic, the best NR software out there...
  • Slight global vignette application
  • Clone stamp tool on a bunch of sensor dirt and little things that annoyed me;)
  • Save to JPEG.
from www.DaveMorrowPhotography.com
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