Some HDR and Panorama during Jog Falls visit

Western ghats are the best place to visit during Monsoon time. Despite of inclement weather, once reached, they are heaven. During our day long stay in Jog falls, I did some trial HDR and panorama. In real terms, HDR was not required at falls site since overcast weather provided some good lighting. The only reason I bracketed HDR shots was to get nice colors on image :-).

The first is the panorama shot of Jog falls from bungalow view point (not british bungalow) located nearby. We wanted some good elevated view point to enjoy the jog falls entirely. As we were roaming around, we could spot this as perfect place. We were relaxing for some time after concluding individual photo-shoots :-). Later it started raining and we went inside the bungalow premises. The view of falls was so gorgeous. However apart from the 4 falls, there was also gowri-shankar falls which is alive only during monsoon. After rain receded, a thought entered into my mind to grab panorama shot including gowri-shankar falls. I took six shots by fixing up white balance as well as aperture. The final image stitching was straight forward with Hugin Panorama creator. The overcast weather made sure the lighting to be uniform in all images. The SUN would have altered exposure bias atleast in few of images.

PANORAMIC JOG FALL VIEW. LEFT MOST IS GOWRI-SHANKAR FALLS

We had hired taxi to visit other view points nearby Jog falls. On the way, we stopped on the Sharavati bridge for some time. The flow control of the river is based on the water outflow from Linganamakki Dam. The same path plunges as Jog falls after few distance. Eventually the Sharavati river meets Arabian sea in Honavar which is 60kms from here. I personally feel you should never miss the Konkan railway journey along beautiful Sharavati river basin near Honavar.

I composed HDR shots nearby bridge totaling 5 shots ranging from -2 to +2 in increments of 1EV.  The reason behind composing HDR was, camera's light meter either used to expose sky or the river. Not both at a time. The final image turned out to be OK but huge haze at background. Probably I required CPL filter here.

SHARAVATI RIVER BASIN NEAR JOG!

Next HDR is of Jog falls itself. As I mentioned earlier, there was no requirement of HDR. I just wanted those bright colors in final image. Again 5 shots ranging from -2 to +2 with increments of 1EV. I increased the green color balance and some applied few color corrections on image. The main interest in image is the clouds which would have not been exposed in normal shots. The Raja falls was plummeting towards narrow gorge which generated misty envelop around the area. Due to this it was difficult to predict when would sight become totally clear. When it cleared, people were thronging to view and shoot the waterfall including us :-).

MAJESTIC JOG FALLS AND WESTERN GHATS