Help Needed - severe contrast

[kerrym]

Need some guidance and some pointers to a tutorial that will help me to edit this image. Obviously a very hard one to shoot. I have it in raw, but haven't ever attempted to work on such a large area to balance up with lighting.

Suggestions as to how to improve it - would be appreciated. It may be beyond full redemption, but it's all practice and a work in progress.

[treecat]

Have you tried using the fill light function of your RAW converter? What happens when you increase the exposure? If increasing the exposure makes it look a little washed out, you could increase the blacks to bring it back. I use Lightroom and those are things that I would try first. I think most RAW converters have the same sets of tools, in case you're using another program.

Anyway, the photo isn't a lost cause and would be worth the time to adjust. Nice one!

[kerrym]

Thanks Treecat. That is something that I wasn't aware of. I shall hunt it out.

I had higher exposures, but the some of the water would get burnt out. It was a sunny day, and that didn't help at the time. I have had more success with the portrait composure as it was easier to crop in closer. But I'll continue to work on this composition as I'm keen on that.

Here's the portrait:

[bclaypole]

If you have it in RAW try a -2, 0, +2 HDR image

[kerrym]

Aha! That's a point. Haven't ever done HDR before, but somebody has explained it to me. I'll hunt out a tutorial and see what I can do.

I've got CS2.

[treecat]

Kerry, I like the portrait format. It emphasizes the height of the waterfalls. I also like the frame. Is that a framing action that I can download?

[kerrym]

You can purchase the framing action that I've used from Fred Miranda. Think it costs in the vicinity of $20. Very easy to use.

[treecat]

Thanks Kerry. I've gotten some framing actions from action central. I'll wander over to Fred Miranda and take a look at his actions. I've heard of them but never looked into his offerings.