About the Image(s)
Background: Elakala waterfalls include three waterfalls in the Blackwater State Park in West Virginia. The first waterfall is the most photographed because is very easy to reach it from the parking lot in front of the lodge. The middle one requires some steep hiking and although it is a short one it can be a challenge. I did never go to the lowest one simply because it will require some skills on climbing and I do not want risk my life for a photo. This image is from the middle waterfall. My friend Adi and I spent a couple of days at the park few weeks ago. This image required to cross the river to get this view. This required to take off our boots and make a careful crossing with camera and tripod. Unfortunately, when we get on the place we wanted, I realized my battery was gone so I had to re-cross the river get to my backpack to pick up a new battery….
Techinal aspects: image taken on a tripod directly as black and white. I have images of this waterfall in color taken during the fall season. In that situation the foliage required a “color” image. This time everything was green, so I think the monochrome is letting the viewer to focus the attention on the waterfall and the flow of water. My Fuji camera record black and white images in raw format so there is no loss of information in the captured image. I wanted to capture the flow of water with a slow speed but still having some texture in the water. I did few attempts, and I think the 4 sec exposures achieved my goal. Image was taken with a 10 stops ND filter.
Post processing: cropped to 3:2 ratio, as usual for my images and then few basic adjustments were done to darken the area surrounding the waterfall and creating a contrast with the white water.
Nigel Dalton
I like the composition of this one Michele. The water has retained a small amount of detail, just right to give the effect. I think that there is a swift change from light to dark in your edit and there are some pleasant middle grey tones in the original file that could be put to good use. A good idea to use mono for this as well, too much green can be quite overbearing. Posted: 07/03/2025 09:44:41
Tom Buckard
Michele, I am torn between your original and the edited image. I really like the sky and forest of your edited image but I also like the rock and water of the original due to so much detail. Also really like the small falls to the right of larger blurry falls on the left. Love black and white! Posted: 07/03/2025 12:40:05
Michele Borgarelli
Nigel and Tom, thank you for submitting your feedback. I read them with interest. You are the first two people that have looked at this that prefer the original one. I think right now there is a trend to get black and white image with high contrast between black and white. I am experimenting to get the second kind of image. Nigel, I think you are right that in the first one there are many details, I would argue maybe too many! To me they would distract from the main subject. I also wanted to limited the sky because technically it competes with the water (two very bright subject in the same frame). Regardless, I appreciate your inputs as usual.
best wishes
Michele Posted: 07/04/2025 03:48:14
Mike Patterson
This is very Ansel Adams of you! Wonderful composition and good choice to use B&W. You did a perfect job of capturing the silky flow of the water. My personal opinion is that the modified version is too dark, causing you to lose some of the interesting details in the rocks. However, the original is too bright. I suggest somewhere in between. Posted: 07/08/2025 14:05:24
Spring Zhang
I love the composition of this image, forest, waterfall and rocks; mother nature is so beautiful! I agree with the comments that the edited image is a bit too dark; the high contract made the waterfall seem a bit too bright with the large area it occupies. You did a good job blurring the waterfall, but I almost feel like I want to see it with just a tad bit more texture like the smaller waterfall on the right. Maybe that's not possible with the amount of water while retaining the silky texture of the smaller waterfall. Overall I like this B/W image a lot. Posted: 07/08/2025 22:38:47
Dennis Lee
I love the composition of this photograph as well. B&W makes this image really striking. The long exposure with the 10-stop ND created really nice silky water. I also like the faint trails in the foreground that serves as leading lines, drawing the viewer's eyes towards the waterfall. I prefer the edited picture over the original, as the latter is a little bright, but that might a result of the long exposure. The edit helps preserve the highlights in the background trees and it also gives the image a moody feel. Posted: 07/14/2025 17:23:02
Michele Borgarelli
Mike, Dennis and Spring thank you for taking the time to comment and critique my image. I much appreciate your thoughts. Reading the comments, I guess a midway from the original the final version would be a better choice. Spring, due to the choice of relatively long shutter speed, it is not possible to get too much texture in the big waterfall. I have different images with different shutter speeds, but this one was the one more appealing to me.
Thank you all again
Michele Posted: 07/16/2025 01:30:33
John Zhu
It's a beautiful image and I like the cropping of some sky. I agree with some of the comments especially the strong contrast between the main fall and the rocks. Great work! Posted: 07/16/2025 22:59:16
Michele Borgarelli
thank you John
Best wishes
Michele Posted: 07/20/2025 04:40:13
