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I’ve enjoyed using Lightroom since v1.  With the improvements and new editing tools introduced in v2, it’s vastly improved.   And now with v3 on the horizon, the story should only get better.  Lightroom is now my main editing application and I typically only use PS for things that can’t be done in LR (e.g., perspective correction, more complex layer work).

As good a tool as it is for organising your photography database, I think there are a good number of people using LR who still don’t know how powerful an editing tool it is. Everything I did with the photos below can be done in PS and probably PSE and other editing applications. In most cases I find the result is better with the tools in LR and the workflow is faster and more natural. In addition, to do the same things in PS would require, in most cases, using layers to maintain the integrity of the original image which increases file sizes and chews up hard drive space.  First I’m going to show 4 images in a before and after comparison.  You may not like the photos, you may not like how I approached the editing.  That’s all fine.  I think they do show the power of the tools in LR for editing; however.  In all but one case, the only tools used were the Adjustment Brushes, Spot Removal and the Clarity slider.  In one, a slight Tone Curve adjustment was made and in the last a crop was applied.  I wanted to do a couple things with these.  I wanted to highlight the bits of colour in the surrounding evergreen trees.  Second, I wanted to bring out the texture of the Precambrian rock of the Canadian Shield.  Beyond that, I wanted to enhance contrast by darkening certain parts of the water and existing shadow areas without completely losing texture or detail.  In the last, I also wanted to brighten the waterfall itself which was hidden in fairly deep shadow and crop to create a near perfect mirrored symmetry with the reflection.

Primarily the Brightness adjustment brush was used as a Dodge/Burn tool and the Sharpening brush was used to selectively sharpen or de-sharpen specific areas of the photos.  The Saturation brush was used to ‘pop’ the bits of fall colour from the surrounding evergreens.  The Saturation brush was also used to desaturate some colour in parts of the water and in the last image to reduce saturation of parts of the cloud reflection.  The Brightness brush as a Dodge/Burn tool is superior to any method I’ve tried in PS, including the use of a separate Dodge/Burn layer (which is a very good method).  The ability to selectively sharpen (or de-sharpen) areas with the Sharpening adjustment brush is simpler than doing it in PS – although I still like the High Pass method in PS for global sharpening quite a lot.  The Spot Removal tool (Clone/Heal) is terrific and particularly with respect to healing, is superior to the Healing Brush in Photoshop.  The ability to very finely match the source and destination with both the Clone and Healing features of the Spot Removal tool is terrific.

When you use any Adjustment brush in LR it puts a control point on the image.  The screen captures below show the various control points for these 4 images.

These control points make it very simple to go back and change prior edits without affecting the edit history on the left.  If you hover your cursor over a control point, a mask will be placed in the image to show the area that has been affected by the specific adjustment (image below is an example).

Hover over different control points till you see the mask covering the area you want to go back and work on.  If you then click on that control point, it will become active, the specific adjustment you made (e.g., Brightness, Sharpening, Contrast, etc.) will become active and you can edit the adjustment to your liking – all without having to backtrack in the History.  If you do go back in the History and make a change, you then lose all of the subsequent adjustments (unless you save a Snapshot).  By activating individual control points, the integrity of the History is maintained yet you can still change previous edit adjustments.  It’s somewhat like using the non-linear editing feature in PS (only better and easier).

Using the tools available in Lightroom entails a different workflow than using Photoshop.  But I think taking some time to become comfortable with Lightroom and the editing tools it offers would be time well spent.  Happy editing!

…. or a third…. or a fourth… or….

Sometimes we go out to a location that we’ve read about, researched, investigated and are full of hope for a positive experience and bringing back some terrific photographs. Sometimes it works. Sometimes it doesn’t. At least not on the first look.

A couple years ago, in mid-September, I was on a trek up in the Bruce Peninsula working on my lighthouse project. From Tobermory, I took the ferry over to Manitoulin Island and my initial plan was to take the ferry back to Tobermory to make the trip home. While on Manitoulin, I decided I’d drive off the north end of Manitoulin and come around the top of Lake Huron so I could hit Killarney and the lighthouse there. With this change in plan, I spent the next couple nights researching other places I could stop and found Chutes Provincial Park.  It was in the opposite direction I wanted to go but it looked like a great spot for flowing water and waterfall shooting so I decided to make the detour.  The park is located just outside of Massey, ON.  The day started out well.  Fantastic sunrise that allowed me to get some interesting shots of the swing bridge (one of the few remaining in operation and one of the oldest) at Little Current on Manitoulin and some good shots of the lighthouse on Strawberry Island and I was fortunate have one of the Strawberry Island light shots grace the cover of Dreamscapes Travel & Lifestyle Magazine.

As the day went on, it began to cloud over and become more overcast.  When I got to Chutes, it was pretty much completely cloudy and threatening rain.  A bit of blue sky popped out occasionally but not for long.  Flat, uninteresting light.  I decided that I’d try to shoot with as little sky in the shots as possible, concentrating on the river, rapids, waterfalls and autumn colours.  I also decided that I’d shoot with HDR in mind.  Not because of the need for a wider dynamic range but rather because of the detail enhancing capabilities of HDR that might help ‘perk’ up some of the images and better allow me to ‘create’ contrast after the fact.

I spent a few hours in the park, hiking the Twin Bridges Trail which is about 3.5 to 4 miles in length round trip.  Looking at the shots later that night in my hotel on the laptop, I wasn’t thrilled with what I had.  It seemed that I hadn’t captured what I had envisioned as I was setting up the shots.  Even processing some HDRs I wasn’t getting anything that really enthused me.

After coming back home, I worked on some of the images again on my desktop computer.  Better screen, better calibration, more accurate colours and contrast.  Maybe that was the problem.  Nope.  Still wasn’t getting results that I was anywhere close to pleased with.  I didn’t toss the images in the Recycle Bin; however.

Things change over time.  Our perspectives change.  Our skill set changes.  We learn new tricks.  We become more comfortable with things like HDR or more advanced digital darkroom tools as we learn more and use them more.

In the past few days, I decided to have another go with some of these shots from Chutes.  The single images still weren’t doing it for me.  Off to HDR-land we go.  When I first took these photos HDR was new to me and I struggled mightily with tonemapping.  Over time as I’ve used HDR more I’ve become more comfortable with it (although still not overly good) and was able to end up with some tonemapped images that were at least closer to what I had visualized initially and that were something I could work with.

Various other editing tools were used to come up with the final versions.  Masking parts of single images into the tonemapped files, Hue/Saturation adjustment layers, High Pass sharpening layers with parts of the image masked out for selective sharpening, and then in all cases, final tweaking in Lightroom using the Adjustment Brushes to fine tune the images (I really like the Brightness Adjustment Brush as a Dodge/Burn tool).

Now, these are far from perfect and undoubtedly a more talented photographer and more talented user of the digital darkroom could come up with much better results; but each of these is much closer to what I envisioned as I looked at different ways to approach the shot and as I picked my final viewpoint to set up from.  I wanted the water to be the main feature of each shot and I wanted the little pockets of fall colour to ‘pop’ out from the surrounding evergreens.  I also wanted to try to highlight the texture of the Precambrian rock that makes up the Canadian Shield.  Was I successful?  Well, moreso now than a couple years ago for sure.  But the park is on the list for a revisit at some time down the road.

The bottom line is, sometimes it pays to go back and take a look at things we’ve done in the past with a fresh viewpoint and maybe some fresh skills.

The Finger Lakes area of New York State is a treasure trove for photographers. The many state parks and forests that sit in what is the heart of New York wine country are definitely underrated gems, particularly so for those interested in waterfalls.  In the fall of 2008, I visited the area for a week, hiking in 5 state parks and checking out numerous local wineries.

The main towns in the area are Watkins Glen, Corning and Ithaca.  Watkins Glen may be better known for its world famous road racing coarse, Corning of course is the home of Corning Glass and Ithaca is where the Ivy League’s Cornell University is located.  The drive from Toronto to Watkins Glen is about 5 hours and from New York City it’s about the same.  The town of Watkins Glen sits at the south end of Seneca Lake.  Corning and Ithaca are both roughly 40 to 50 minute drives from Watkin’s Glen.   I’m referencing other points to Watkins Glen because that’s where I stayed.

Right in Watkin’s Glen on Rt 14 is Watkins Glen State Park.  Unquestionably the best maintained of all the parks I visited, WGSP offers a cornucopia of possibilities for landscape/nature photographers.  The Gorge Trail is roughly 2 miles long, has over 800 stairs and rises 500 vertical feet.  The trail is extremely well maintained.  There are garbage cans along the trail (most of the parks are carry in/carry out).  The hike is not difficult except for the climbing and you will do a lot of climbing.  Particularly at the end of the hike up the trail, the stairway out of the gorge is going to hurt a little.  The footing is sound due to the stairs and maintenance of the trail.  You’ll cross over the gorge a few times on the hike.  There are rest stops at both top and bottom, a gift shop at the bottom and vending machines to get a cold drink at both ends.  There are a few places along the trail you can rest as well.  At some points during the year, shuttles are available to take you from top to bottom or vice versa so you can choose to hike in just one direction if you choose.  The shuttles mainly operate during the summer season and on weekends in the spring and fall.  Check with the park for more information on the shuttles.

With nearly 20 individual falls along the trail, plan to spend a couple hours going each way.  The trail and the falls look very different going down than going up and you’ll get some different and interesting framing in both directions.  The trail map shows the main sections of the route.

Spiral Gorge is particularly interesting and there are plenty of different opportunities within this section of the trail.

The Rainbow Falls area is also one where there are lots of opportunities both from above and below.

In this photo below, you can see how the glacial erosion over thousands of years has cut and carved through the bedrock.

The park is open year round but the Gorge Trail is closed in winter.  The colours in autumn are spectacular.  If you want greater volumes of water then going soon after the trail opens in May would be the best bet.

Robert H. Treman State Park is another in the area with some terrific views and waterfalls.  A little southwest of Ithaca, Treman SP is about a 40 to 45 minute drive from Watkins Glen.  The best attraction in Treman is Lucifer Falls which is at the top of the Gorge Trail.  The Gorge Trail runs for a little over 2 miles and rises 600 feet vertically.  The hike would be classed as moderate to difficult.  Difficult because some areas of the trail aren’t well maintained.  Stairs are heaved in some places making climbing on them more difficult.  If you want to forego the walk up from the bottom entrance, you can enter at the top end and make the short walk down the trail, perhaps half a mile, to the falls then walk back out.  Whichever way you go, make sure you take note of sunset and plan your time accordingly.  Trying to walk down the trail in darkness isn’t overly easy (don’t ask me how I know that).  Timex Indiglo watches do provide a surprising amount of light; however.

Just a little above Lucifer Falls is Upper Falls.  It’s difficult to get a good shot of this one unless you’re willing to climb down into the gorge and walk along the riverbed.  This isn’t, I don’t believe, generally permitted so do so at your own risk.

If you’re walking down from the top, as you make your way down into the gorge and begin walking the trail, the light may be right to get some good shots from the top of Upper Falls as well.

At the top of the trail you’ll find an old mill that’s been preserved.  Inside this building are public washrooms.  To the river side of the mill is another small cascade that zigzags down the rocks and you can get some interesting interplay between light and shadow depending on the time of day.

For a change of pace and a much easier walk, Taughannock Falls State Park is the desired destination.  The Gorge Trail here is flat and only 3/4 of a mile long.  The easy walk along a wide, well groomed trail brings you to Taughannock Falls.  Walking into this waterfall is like walking into a giant amphitheatre made out of rock.  Taughannock Falls itself is over 200 feet high.  The rock walls leading out from the falls rise over 400 feet from the river’s bed.  The flow of water over the cliff will vary greatly depending on time of year and amount of rainfall.  It had been a fairly dry late summer when I visited so there was little more than a tiny ribbon of water flowing over the edge.  In spring after the melt or in rainier times, the flow of water is much greater.

Further up river, there is another falls – Upper Falls.  You can’t get to it from the Gorge Trail but can from either the North Rim or South Rim trails.  Unfortunately, the Gorge Trail doesn’t meet up with either of these so you’ll need to walk back out and back in again if you want to get to Upper Falls.  Or you can drive out and park at the upper end of the trail and walk back the short distance to Upper Falls.

Buttermilk Falls State Park is about 2 miles from Treman SP and both could be visited on the same day if you wanted.  Of the five parks I visited, Buttermilk was the most disappointing and if one had to be left out, this would be the one.  Buttermilk Falls itself is a long, sloping cascade that almost looks like it’d make a decent toboggan hill.  It’s accessible from the parking lot at the lower entrance to the park and there isn’t a lot of reason to go much further except for the walk, unfortunately.  The vertical drop overall from top to bottom is about 400 to 500 feet.  The Gorge Trail is a little under a mile but it is steep, climbing 500 feet in that distance.  You can cross Buttermilk Creek near the top of the Gorge Trail at Pinnacle Rock or right at the top of the trail and connect back with the Rim Trail for a different route back down.  The trail is steep in places with little to no stairs to help the climb.  In other places, there are stairs.  A good, sturdy walking staff will help and you’ll be grabbing onto trees and roots in places to help pull yourself up. Due to the steep climbs and lack of stairs in places, I’d rate this trail as moderate to difficult.

There are some potentially interesting shots of some other falls on the way up the trail but sadly, these are largely obscured by trees.

While it’s called the Gorge Trail, and while the gorge is visible on many parts of the trail, unlike the other parks, you’re not often very close to the gorge or the creek.  In many places, the trail really is more of a rim trail, taking you along the top of the gorge.  The roughness of the ground make setting up a tripod very difficult in places and the placement of a chest high fence along the trail impedes camera angles.

Pinnacle Rock, near the top of the trail is an interesting natural formation.  It’s a lone outcropping of rock that has been created by the erosion of water between it and the wall of the gorge.  Getting a good photo of it is difficult.  On the day I visited, the light wasn’t great and any direction I tried to shoot from I was getting a lot of flare.  You have to be fairly close to the formation to frame it as well which makes apparent perspective distortion an unpleasant side effect.

In the upper half of the Gorge Trail, you begin to get closer to the water, walking right beside the creek bed at points.  It’s in this area that some better photo opportunities are available.  Stupidly, I left my spare batteries in the motel room on this morning so didn’t get some of the better shots at the upper end of the trail.

Allow an hour to 75 minutes for the hike up and a similar time for the walk back down.  There’s not a lot of difference in time to get back down whether you come back down the Gorge Trail or cross over the creek to the Rim Trail.

There’s also the Larch Meadow Trail which is across the creek from the lower parking area and beyond the baseball fields which are visible upon crossing the creek on the roadway.  This trail is supposed to be very good for wildlife and birds.  I didn’t hike it myself but am relating what was told to me by locals.  Locals know.

The last park I visited on the trek was Letchworth State Park.  I only had a day to visit this one but if you can spend a few days, it’s well worth it.  Nicknamed “The Grand Canyon of the East”, the reason for the moniker becomes readily apparent when you start walking the trails.  Deep, wide canyons have been cut by the water and wind through the park.  Letchworth SP is about 60 miles from Watkins Glen and it takes 90 minutes to 2 hours to drive there depending on traffic, route taken and construction.  You can enter from the north or south end.  If you want to hike the Gorge Trail, entering from the south, at the Portageville entrance and parking in the small lot near the railroad trestle would be optimal because this is also near the head of the Gorge Trail.  This lot is pretty close to the south end of the park.  If you drive in from the north, it’s about a 10 mile drive through the park to this lot at the south.

The Gorge Trail is roughly 7 miles long.  There are three main waterfalls on this trail with numerous others that can be seen as well.  The three main ones are Upper, Middle and Lower Falls.  Lower Falls is roughly half way along the trail.  I’m not certain of the exact vertical but it is several hundred feet from the head of the trail to Lower Falls.  The trail is fairly well marked.  It’s well maintained in some places but not so well maintained in others.  There are some steep climbs.  In places, stairs have heaved or are missing entirely.  Some steep climbs don’t have stairs at all and in some places, the height of the individual stairs is significant.  Overall, I’d rate this trail as moderate and difficult in places.  At times during the year, the part of the trail that leads to Lower Falls may be impassable due to wet conditions.  When I visited, despite it having been a fairly dry autumn, this part of the trail was quite wet which made walking difficult in places.  The climb in and out of the gorge to and from the Lower Falls is long and steady with little break from the slope.  Be prepared.  The trail does pass through some forested areas which provide shade and a respite from the climbs.  At Lower Falls, there’s a bridge over the river which allows you to connect to the Portage or Footbridge trails.

One of the most popular spots to view Middle Falls is from Inspiration Point.  If you get the right angle, you can get Upper Falls in the shot as well.

Where to Stay:  There are numerous hotels, motels and inns in the area.  I stayed at the Golden Knight Inn on Rt 14 just outside of Watkins Glen.  It was clean and the owners were very friendly and helpful.  The decor is dated but that’s fine.  The water gets hot in the shower very quickly and you don’t get scalded or frozen when someone in another unit turns on their water nor does the pressure change markedly (something a lot of high end hotels can’t even say).  Wireless internet access is available.  When I was there you needed to be close to the office to use it so if you need it, make sure to ask for a room within the range of their router.

Where to Eat:  Montage Restaurant – Avoid.  The carpet is dirty and grungy.  The food is awful.  Rooster Fish Brewing/Wildflower Cafe – Excellent brewpub.  Very nice selection of beers brewed on site.  Food is good.  Comes to the table hot.  Bread is home made and very tasty.  Hours are bit odd.  I went to eat at about 9:00 on a Saturday night (admittedly not in high tourist season) and was told they were closing the dining room but I could get food in  the pub.  Closing at 9:00 on a Saturday?  Still, good food and friendly staff.  Jerlando’s Pizza – decent food.  Probably a 3 to 3 1/2 stars out of 5.  The food is hot.  My pasta was cooked a little past al dente but it wasn’t mush.  The meatballs had good flavour.  The pizza is OK.  It’s hard to find good pizza though.  On another trip to the area, I’d eat there again.  Seneca Harbor Station – not a pleasant experience.  Waited at the entrance for 10 minutes before anyone asked if I wanted a table.  Maybe they figured I was waiting for someone else but they should have asked.  It was busy the night I was there.  Maybe that says something, maybe not.  It’s passable seafood but that’s about all.  Not spectacular, not even really good.  The service is very fast.  Too fast.  Courses followed on each other before the previous course was finished.  If you’re looking for a somewhat leisurely dining experience, this isn’t it.  Overpriced for what you get.  I wouldn’t go back.  On the upside, their bread is quite good is served hot and has nice flavour.  The staff were very indifferent.  It felt as though my being there was an inconvenience and that they were doing me a favour by serving me.  Not a pleasant experience.  Savard’s Family Restaurant – good place for breakfast.  Typical diner type fare.  Served hot.  Lots of food.  Good prices.

What Else to Do:  There are many wineries in the area and maps are available at most accommodations with information on the routes.  Corning has the Corning Glass Museum which includes glass blowing demonstrations.  There are numerous other state parks and nature areas in the region including Finger Lakes National Forest, Cayuga Nature Centre and on the campus at Cornell University are Sapsucker Woods Sanctuary and the Cornell Plantations.