A stroll through Great Falls
Next weekend, I am doing a family portrait shoot for an old high school friend and her husband in Great Falls Park in Northern Virginia. Since I haven’t been there in a while, I decided to go check it out yesterday. I normally don’t do HDR photos of nature, particularly when the sky is clear blue. But, when I began processing the photos, I converted a couple single RAW photos to HDR and I was impressed with the results. I still don’t have a neutral density filter (I know, I know… BAD photographer) so, for many of the waterfall shots, I dropped the ISO down to 50 and decreased the aperture down to f/32 on my 70-200mm, f/2.8 lens to get the motion blur of some of the falls. I think it worked out pretty well despite the sun shining brightly. Here are a few of the shots from yesterday:
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October 5th, 2008 at 9:59 am
I think they turned out great!
October 5th, 2008 at 10:12 am
Thanks Heather!
October 5th, 2008 at 1:14 pm
You are making me very homesick. Great stuff!!
October 5th, 2008 at 1:37 pm
Thanks Beau!
October 5th, 2008 at 6:23 pm
I’ve tried to take photos of running water with my little Canon digital and failed miserably. Your stuff? Niiice. Give ya lots of credit, too, ’cause I know having a good camera helps to get a good shot, but knowing how to use it is most important. Excellent.
October 5th, 2008 at 7:31 pm
Shawn, I am so excited. You are way to kind to go and research the area first hand for our family photos. Your pictures are just absolutely stunning! Thank you SO MUCH!!
October 6th, 2008 at 8:05 am
@Lori: Thanks!
@Renae: It’s no problem at all! I look forward to next weekend. See you then!
October 6th, 2008 at 10:11 am
smart guy!! nice shots Shawn- the conversion that you choose works nicely – go to borders and check out The Art of Photographing people – By Cantrell and Cohen – Its a great book to look for on posing and gives the camera details and PS tech. I give it a look through before heading out on a portrait gig
October 6th, 2008 at 10:13 am
Thanks for the tip Mike! I’ll check it out! That’s one area where I am uncomfortable still… working with people for portraits and posing. I’ll try and pick it up this week.
October 7th, 2008 at 7:05 am
[...] Shawn of SDuffy Photography – “A Stroll Through Great Falls“ [...]
October 8th, 2008 at 1:17 am
Very well done shots here Shawn – they all look like they could be on postcards! A photo group I was in back in SC went on a waterfalls trip a year or so ago and I know how tough it can be to catch things just right – you did so with a great eye for composition and leading lines in all of these. I have to agree with Mike though, the b/w conversion in #2 is my favorite!
October 8th, 2008 at 8:33 am
Thanks Jason! I look forward to doing more of these as the leaves start to change.
October 13th, 2008 at 6:25 am
[...] I mentioned last week, I did some family portraits in Great Falls National Park this weekend. Since the portraits were [...]
October 17th, 2008 at 11:21 am
Beautiful Shawn! I love the color in that first one. How many different exposures did you create and merge together?
October 17th, 2008 at 12:04 pm
Thanks Barrie! That was a standard 3 exposure handheld shot… -2,0,+2