Jon Buffington
Well-Known Member
Last year in early fall, I hosted some members of the Lawrenceburg Photographic Society for an all day waterfall shoot. We were hoping for some early fall colors and good light. Did get some early color but the light was less than ideal. However, fun was had by all. They had not shot over in the highland rim region of TN so I was glad to show them around for some of our area waterfalls.
We started the morning off at Short Springs State Natural Area and would progress to Old Stone State Park for an afternoon session after a great lunch was had eating wood fired, brick oven pizza. As I have extensively shot in these areas, this was a fun trip for me and I elected to shoot film and leave the digital gear at home. I knew with the sun light, negative color film would be best. It just tames highlights so much better than digital sensors and makes harsh day light look, well, much less harsh. So some ektar and portra 160 films were brought along with my canon 7ne, 17-40L and 24-105L.
It was nearing the end of the day, the sun was setting and we were wading down stream shooting the cascading falls. Towards the end of the shoot, we ended at the location below. The sun was setting and illuminating the falls. The light was harsh but the portra 160 behaved admirably. I would have had a bearish time shooting my 5dmkii, bracketing and what not. I just metered for the shadows and let fire a frame. A CPL was used which created some slight ghosting but nothing absurd. I processed this at home and scanned on my Kodak Pakon 135+. Minimal adjustments made in LR5 with just a slight gradient mask, a little color correction, levels control and some mild sharpening. Fun was had by all and I was able to walk away with this keeper. Enjoy!
We started the morning off at Short Springs State Natural Area and would progress to Old Stone State Park for an afternoon session after a great lunch was had eating wood fired, brick oven pizza. As I have extensively shot in these areas, this was a fun trip for me and I elected to shoot film and leave the digital gear at home. I knew with the sun light, negative color film would be best. It just tames highlights so much better than digital sensors and makes harsh day light look, well, much less harsh. So some ektar and portra 160 films were brought along with my canon 7ne, 17-40L and 24-105L.
It was nearing the end of the day, the sun was setting and we were wading down stream shooting the cascading falls. Towards the end of the shoot, we ended at the location below. The sun was setting and illuminating the falls. The light was harsh but the portra 160 behaved admirably. I would have had a bearish time shooting my 5dmkii, bracketing and what not. I just metered for the shadows and let fire a frame. A CPL was used which created some slight ghosting but nothing absurd. I processed this at home and scanned on my Kodak Pakon 135+. Minimal adjustments made in LR5 with just a slight gradient mask, a little color correction, levels control and some mild sharpening. Fun was had by all and I was able to walk away with this keeper. Enjoy!
