Mickey

Welcome to the official NikonForums.com photo contest for February, 2015!
 
The theme for this month is "Landscape" and photos taken with any Nikon will quality for the contest. Let your creativity and photographic technique impress and show us something extra special!

Click here to view the contest gallery & submit

 
Prizes:

• 1st place prize: $50 B&H gift card
• 2nd place prize: 1-year premium forum account
• 3rd place: honorable mention and homepage feature

Here's how to enter:

• Go to the gallery category for this contest by clicking here
• Click on the "upload" button on the right side of the page
• Click on "browse" and select the file you'd like to upload from your computer (don't change the category or create a personal album)
• Click on "upload"
• Click on "review & publish"
• Add a title, description, and tags for your photo, then click on "finish & publish"

Your photo will then appear in the gallery index.  Submission deadline: February  28, 2015
 
How will the winners be chosen?
 
Entries will be accepted through the end of the month.  At that time, the contest gallery will close and a new theme will be posted for the following month.  For two weeks you will be able to rate and comment on the photos in the gallery.  Then, the top 15 photos will become finalists and we'll post a poll in this forum to determine the two winners.  The poll will remain open for a week, meaning that we'll know who the winners are about 3 weeks after the submission deadline.
 
If you win first place, your B&H gift card will be sent to you via PM/e-mail*.  If you're in second place, we'll automatically upgrade your forum account so that you can upload even more pics to the site!  Good luck!

*If you live outside of the US, we can mail you an item up to the gift card value free of charge, or you can use the gift card toward and online purchase with international shipping.
 
Fine print
 
There really isn't much to say here, except by entering you agree to allow NikonForums.com to share links to your work via social media channels and publish your work on our homepage if you end up winning.  Note that in order to qualify for this photo contest, your entry must be taken with a Nikon camera.
 
Limit 1 submission per person.  If you submit multiple photos, you will have until the end of the month to delete all but your final submission.  At the end of the month, if you still have multiple submissions, they will be disqualified and removed from the contest gallery.
 
Once again, good luck and I hope you enjoy this official photo contest!  Please post any questions you may have in this thread.

Click here to submit

I've taken hundreds of photos of waterfalls over the years and I only use a circular polarizer. It stops down about 1 1/2 stops with the benifit of reducing glare off the water.  Use a small aperture like f/22 and it will work to smooth out the water in most circumstances. You only need about 1/2 to 2 seconds to get the smooth look going. More time gives more smoothness but you can overdue it and just get a white blob with no detail. Another rule of thunb, the more water flow the waterfall has the easier it is to blur.  Small low flow ones look better with longer SS. it fills them out.  When it won't work is when the waterfall is brightly lit by the sun. Try to plan your visit for early or late in the day to avoid the bright sun or go on an overcast rainy day ideally. If the waterfall is in partial sun and shade your best option is to bracket and process it as an HDR.

1/2 seconds - f/16 - iso 200

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