Photo Story: Brandywine Falls, Cuyahoga Valley National Park

Brandywine Falls is one of the top attractions in Cuyahoga Valley National Park. The falls are 65 feet tall, making them the second highest waterfall in Ohio.

Brandywine Falls

The address for Brandywine Falls is 8176 Brandywine Road, Sagamore Hills, Ohio. The GPS for the falls is 41.276874, -81.538573. The falls are accessible from the parking lot using a wooden boardwalk and stairs.

Brandywine Falls has a good flow of water year round. The best, unobstructed view is at the end of the boardwalk where this photo was taken. A 24mm or wider lens (full frame) is a good choice to photograph the full waterfall from the end of the boardwalk.

It was a cloudy morning when this photo was taken. I used a Tiffen 62mm Neutral Density 0.6 Filter to slow the shutter speed and get a silky effect on the waterfall.

Brandywine Falls Photo Details

Camera: Olympus OM-D E-M1
Lens: Olympus 12-40mm f2.8 Pro Lens
Focal Length: 12mm
ISO: 200
Aperture: f/22
Shutter Speed: .4 seconds
Exposure Compensation: +0
Lighting: Cloudy Morning

Waterfall Photo Processing

Cropped the photo and lightened the shadows with the Shadows Slider in Lightroom 5.
Used the Color and Contrast Boost III filter in Topaz Clarity to bring out the colors in the photo and increase contrast.
Selectively lightened and darkened the image using Viveza 2 from Google.

In Color Efex Pro 4, I Used the Detail Extractor, Darken/Lighten Center and Pro Contrast Filters.
Selectively removed noise from the photo using Topaz DeNoise
and a layer mask in Photoshop CC 2014.
Selectively sharpened the image using the Unsharp Mask filter and a layer mask in Photoshop CC 2014. I copied the layer mask from the prior step and inverted it.
Removed telephone lines and a fence line using the Clone Stamp tool in Photoshop CC 2014.

Written by Martin Belan

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