Fall at Fall Creek Falls
f/16 1/5 sec ISO 64 64 mm
Nikon Z7ii with Nikon 24-70 Z f/4 Lens
Taken 10/29/2021
I made a mad dash to Fall Creek Falls State Park one morning because the night had brought some heavy rains, the temperature was warm enough that I was expecting some fog, and the leaves in Tennessee were really becoming lovely. The drive for me was about 1.5 hours, but it was a weekday that I was off from work and it was worth the journey. I drove out to the park as early as I could get up because I wanted that morning light and fog, plus I was hoping to beat any crowds. Once I arrived, it was better than I imagined. I tried a variety of shots. Panoramics, wide angle, the whole vertical waterfall, etc. I liked many of them, but I wanted to see if I could get something a little special. I zoomed into the top of the falls and I loved this little composition of the cascading water at the top with a little motion blur, the copper color in the rocks, and the vivid fall leaves framing the water.
I used a very small aperture (f/16) to get everything sharply in focus, but also so I could get a slower shutter speed. There was enough light already that I wouldn’t be able to blur the water if I used a more wide open aperture, because the shutter speed would have to increase as well. This is always part of the trade-off. My other option was to put a Neutral density filter on the lens, but I didn’t bring it with me this day. I was on a tripod to get a very stable and in-focus shot. I might have been able to hand-hold a 1/20 sec or even 1/10 sec with modern image stabilization, but I think it would have been out of focus at 1/5 sec without a tripod.
I did the post-processing in Lightroom. Mostly controlling brightness, contrast, and some color balance. White balance can be tricky since the water can end up looking too blue or the trees can look too orange. I added some sharpening at the end as well.