[Pat]

Husband and I with friends spent hours travelling to the Ellenborough Falls on the Comboyne Plateau, what a disappointment! only way to photograph these falls (?) was from a platform jutting out from the gorge. When I got home and took a look at the photograph I nearly cried, you can see why

[Toad]

The huge disparity in exposure here makes it difficult to fix. It is an obvious candidate for Irma's & Guerito's HDR technique, but there may not be enough detail in the burned out portion to work with unless you have other exposures as well.

I am out of town and away from my PC or I would give it a bash. Off the top of my head, I would suggest recropping to remove the burned out stuff and dramatically sharpening the image. I would also try to apply some texture to the scene with Poster Edges - fade back to between 20 and 50% (let your eye be the judge).

[Irma]

I am sorry Pat, I know that feeling, it has happend to me several times...

I think there is not much to do unfortunately, becuase you lost a lot of information on your picture... I also would have found this picture rather difficult to get right as well... There is a very high contrast light/shadow...

Just as an advice when you are taking this sort of pictures always look at your histogram... and if you have something blown out.... see your settings and switch to manual... go faster in your shutter speed.... it is much better not to have anything blown out, even if you see some dark parts... you can work better because you have the information there...

Well this is just my idea.... and I can't advise more about this... sometimes G wonders how I take pictures when I don't have a clear idea about how the things work, and he is right... somehow...
Anyway, I think it is always good to try different settings when you are not sure...

BTW, have you tried to take your pictures in RAW format? I think you can do it with your camera, can't you?

The ony possible way I saw to try to fix your picture is like this... Feel free to give me your opinion if you don't like it...

[Irma]

Toad, I didn't see your post when I posted my try... I will try as you said with Poster Edges as well...

You are right... there is not enough information for an HDR image...

[Petographer]

Hi Pat

Toad and Irma are right. What camera are you using? Can you view the histogram on it? This would help big time when shooting images with 2 extremes in lighting as this one. Also neutral density filters come to mind. Irma's suggestion of shooting in raw is probably the best advice you can be given. If you were to face this situation again you can shoot raw and meter your exposure off the bright area's. The dark one's can be dealt with in photoshop.

[Petographer]

I played a little just to see what I could come up with. A couple different B&W conversions and one using a defog action to boost contrast a little. Also, I did some cloning to fill in blown areas to help with a better crop.

[Pat]

Thanks everyone for your help, your comments noted. Your work on the photo is great and appreciated but lost is the depth of the gorge, it was DEEEEEP and magnificent. The day we went was a comedy of errors beginning with the tour operator who misjudged the distance we had to travel. When taking the shot my husband was hanging on to me as I leant over the railing. I have a Canon PowerShot Pro1, I can shoot in raw, and it does have a histogram. Thanks again.

[bloodyrain]

[Don Schaeffer]

I darkened the rocks on the opposite bank of the stream. I think others did it better.

[NT73]

I think the rocks are trees.
Using irfanview for a quick and dirty effort I applied -40 contrast, Gamma 0.54, Saturation 70, and brightness 34.
Because it is a resized pic a lot of detail is lost on the blown out bit of sky but there may be more in the original.
Hmm... I should have sharpened it as well.
Really it needs the light parts selecting and darkening, to blend with the rest of the pic. P/S for that.

What you see with your eye regards depth, is difficult to convey in a photograph unless it is very large.

[squirl033]

i'm afraid this one is beyond any meaningful help... the bright spots are simply too blown out, too much is lost. it's frustrating when something like this happens, the best way to prevent such disappointments is to take multiple bracketed exposures, then you have the wherewithal for HDR processing which would help balance the brightness and shadows...