Moxie Falls and High Dynamic Range Imaging

Figure 1. Moxie Falls, Kennebec river valley.

Making photographs of Moxie Falls in Maine provided an opportunity to use "high dynamic range" imaging because of the extremes of the lighting. The top of the falls was in full sunlight and the cliff sides was in deep shade. So I made three exposures, one to insure detail in the shadow, the sunlit water was blocked. A second intermediate exposure was made and finally a third exposure insured that there was no blocking in the sunlit water but of course there was little shadow detail.

Figure 2. Exposed for the shadows (Zones 2-4), blocked highlights.

Figure 3. Exposed for the intermediate scale (Zone V).

Figure 4. Exposed for the highlights (Zone VII-X).

Figure 5. Combining the three exposures into a final image.

The same approach was used for the full view of the falls (Figure 1)