Bridge Over Calm Waters
Sunday evening I decided to take advantage of the beautiful weather we were enjoying by visiting South Holston Dam in Sullivan County, Tennessee. This is a truly beautiful area and one of my favorite ‘quick-trips’ on busy weekends since it is only about 10 miles from my house. The bridge carries you into Osceola Island Recreation Area just below the dam and has boat ramps at each end. On one side of the bridge is faster moving water stocked with trout and on the other is slower moving marsh waters. Between the dam and the bridge are 72 weir dams (man-made waterfalls) that operate when the dam is not generating electricity to help oxygenate the water.
This shot was actually taken as I was leaving when I decided to drop down into the marshland side of the bridge to grab some frames. While shooting the grasses reflecting in the slower water I noticed that the it had become so calm that it was mirroring everything in sight. I had not brought my tripod down to the water’s edge so I set my auto bracketing and found a tree to lean against to steady myself.
I am really please with how this image turned out and I hope you enjoy it too!
This image is an HDR created from 3 handheld brackets. It was processed in Lightroom 3.3 and tone mapped in Photomatix 4.
Camera settings: Canon 60D, 18-135mm @ 18mm, ISO320, f/8, 3-brackets with 0EV @ 1/50sec
that is one crisp reflection, great shot Curt!!
Jim Nix recently posted..Seattle stuff
Very calm waters – beautiful scene!
Gorgeous photo!
Thank you, Eric! I visited your site and you have produced some amazing artwork.
What a great shot! Scenes like this make me miss living in the midwest. We simply don’t have bridges over running water here in Phoenix.
. Love the reflection in the water. I tend to favor natural looking images as well and this one really delivers.
Thanks, Chris! Water is one thing we’ve had plenty of this year I was just happy to catch it calm and smooth for a change.
Oh Curt…what an awesome reply! Thank you so much for all the detail and explanation! I admire your work greatly. I also use Lightroom. Not sure what you mean by 0 all settings. I usually bracket 5 exposures at 2/3 stop and import them as is. Usually photomatix gives my images a surreal look, but I love the luminosity you’ve achieved. I’m going to jot down your settings and get to work! Thanks again, so much, for taking the time to share. Have a wonderful evening! Cathy
Awesome image Curt, I love the reflections. I also like that you didn’t go crazy on the saturation here, it really puts the focus on the bridge.
Thanks for the feedback Jason I really appreciate it!
That’s an absolutely gorgeous photo Curt from the composition to the processing! Thanks for sharing the settings you used! I have a question for you..I also use photomatix4, but have not figured out how to get the smooth and more natural look you achieved. Do you recall your basic settings?
Cathy,
Thanks so much for wonderful comment! I have a personal default set of options that I’ve recently begun using for Photomatix and I’m really enjoying the look and feel it delivers. I usually end up tweaking them a little but not much, mainly just White/Black point, Gamma and Luminosity. Also, prior to exporting the brackets to Photomatix I ‘zero’ all settings in Lightroom (except White Balance) and bring the Tone Curve back to a flat linear. Here are the settings I’m using in Photomatix…hope these help!
Tone Mapping > Detail Enhancer
Strength = 100
Color Saturation = 45
Luminosity = 3.0
Microcontrast = 7.5
Smoothing = 3.0
Tone Settings
White Point = .425%
Black Point = .020%
Gamma = .90
Color Settings
Temperature = 1.5
Saturation Highlights = -1.0
Saturation Shadows = -1.0
Miscellaneous Settings
Micro-smoothing = 1.0
Highlights Smoothness = 14
Shadows Smoothness = 26
Shadows Clipping = 35