I took a 3.5 hour drive to make a day trip in Munising, MI. First on my list of stops was a stop at Wagner Falls. The falls are great because you can get close to them although that means other people can also get close to them and in your picture. In this particular shot, a kid was standing to the left of the falls, but since I took bracketed shots, he only ended up in one of them!

Location

The falls are located south of Munising right off of the road. They’re an easy walk down a trail to get to them. You can sneak your way under a railing and walk across the creek to get the shot I took. Depending on the water depth, you may want to bring some water shoes or rain boots. I always bring my knee high rain boots when I go to water falls to allow me to walk around in the water a bit and try to get to an area other people can’t get to.

Composition

I took many shots, but only a few turned out as the sun was peaking through the trees frequently and casting harsh highlights and shadows on the scene and the falls. This particular shot, the sun was less harsh. Like most waterfall shots, they tend to look best from a slight side angle to get them some depth. I found some rocks to use for a foreground subject and placed the falls in the background.

Post Processing

I ran the 3 bracket shots through Photomatix first. I used the ghosting featured to try to remove the kid standing to the left of the falls which worked pretty well. After that, I brought the file into Lightroom and did global and local adjustments to it. I tried to darken the areas around the falls while brightening the falls to make them stand out more.

Software Used

Lightroom

Photomatix

Techniques Used

High-Dynamic-Range

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