Photo Story: Tremont Road Rapids, Smoky Mountains

Tremont Road is a less traveled road in the most visited National Park in the United States – the Great Smoky Mountains National Park. Tremont Road runs along side the Middle Prong of the Little River.

Rapids Along Tremont Road

Tremont Road is a terrific place to photograph a mountain river using long exposures. Essential equipment for long exposure photography are a sturdy tripod, remote shutter release, a set of neutral density filters, and hiking boots with good traction for stepping on rocks in the river.

For neutral density filters, I use:

I also use a handy Tiffen carrying case that stores these three filters plus a polarizer, and attaches to my belt for easy access to the filters.

I used the .6 neutral density filter for the photo in this blog. I found the .6 worked in most situations in this shady area to give me the shutter speeds necessary to give the water a silky look.

Rapids Along Tremont Road Photo Details

Camera: Olympus OM-D E-M1
Lens: Olympus 12-40mm f2.8 Pro Lens
Focal Length: 17mm
ISO: 400
Aperture: f/22
Shutter Speed: 1.3 seconds
Exposure Compensation: 0
Lighting: Shady, Diffused Light

Photo Processing

Cropped the photo in Lightroom CC.
Removed a light colored, distracting dead branch from the scene using the Clone Stamp in Photoshop CC.
Used Viveza 2 to selectively lighten and darken areas of the photo.
Applied the Polarizer Filter in Color Efex Pro 4.
Used the Landscape Pop 1 filter in Topaz Clarity to give the photo contrast and pop.

Selectively removed noise from the photo using Topaz DeNoise.
Selectively sharpened the photo using the Unsharp Mask Filter in Photoshop CC and reusing the layer mask filter from the prior step.

Written by Martin Belan

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