Lauren Heerschap  


Fall Wenatchee River by Lauren Heerschap

October 2021 - Fall Wenatchee River

About the Image(s)

This is the Wenatchee River in Washington in the fall. Taken with my Olympus Om-D EM-1 Mark 5, on a 12- 100 lens, at 24 mm, Iso 200, f8. I used a High Resolution setting in the camera which shifts the sensor and combines images into one photo. I then ran it through Photoshop and Camera Raw to make the colors pop. However I am unhappy with the dark right side of the photo where the river is. The questions I have for the group is this: Half of the photo is of the river in shade. The other half is in light. 1. How would you shoot this differently? Would you use bracketing, or exposure compensation? 2. In post processing, how would you correct the shade (if you think it would improve the photo).


This round’s discussion is now closed!
5 comments posted




Brad Ashbrook   Brad Ashbrook
You have a couple of choices.. 1 is an HDR which would help with the darker right side and brighter rocks. I cannot say I am a proponent of in camera blending because you have lost control. The 2nd method, you could use a luminosity mask and selectively mask the areas the you want and either lighten, darken, increase saturation, do a curves adjustment, any number of things. I think one of the easiest to use and there are a lot of good videos for training is TK8 by Tony Kuyper and Sean Bagshaw.

Back to the image.. the image has a very nice leading S curve which takes you though the photo with the nice yellows, oranges and spots of red. Overall it seems a little bright but probably a matter of taste. Plus I really don't think the right side is that dark, a small luminosity mask would fix this in a jiffy! You also have nice puffy clouds which is always a plus!   Posted: 10/08/2021 21:35:33



Jon Allanson   Jon Allanson
I like the way that the river makes a good leaden to the image. I can appreciate that there was very strong lighting from the right, which would have made the trees on the right much darker. As presented I feel that the trees on the right are appropriately lit, but the ones and rocks on the left are over bright.

My approach to this type of lighting situation would be either taking 2 original images a different exposures and stacking and masking to get the end result.
Or having a single RAW exposure making 2 different 'exposure' exports from Lightroom and then stacking and masking as required.

  Posted: 10/13/2021 04:41:33



Danny Dunne   Danny Dunne
Good composition of the river through the rocks and meandering into the distance. The V shape of the sky and mountain works well. To me the darker right side helps the composition of the river moving away from us. To me the left side is a little too bright and colours over cooked, but maybe that is what it is.   Posted: 10/14/2021 05:30:24



Becca Cambridge   Becca Cambridge
Fun fall foliage. Ours have not started to change which is VERY late. So, it's nice to see some color in the trees.
That said, this looks like it has some enhanced saturation or HDR processing which means it looks overly bright to me. Wonder if there is any way to tone down the reflection on the rock while increasing the left side of the photo. I'm just learning how to do gradient masking. Any number of adjustments can be made using it. Just a thought.
Fun fall photo.
  Posted: 10/15/2021 11:59:20



Jan van Leijenhorst   Jan van Leijenhorst
As meentioned by others, the left side is rater bright. I applied a slight vignette in LR to darken that side.   Posted: 10/31/2021 16:36:24
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