What I loved about this scene was the up and down energy between the flow of water heavily pushing my eyes downstream, and the light bouncing up the mossy rocks to where the sun was rising around the corner. I’m not sure if I accomplished this visually, but was intentionally endeavoring to encourage the viewer to travel up and down the river.
What technical feedback would you like if any?
All thoughtful comments welcome
What artistic feedback would you like if any?
All thoughtful comments welcome
Pertinent technical details or techniques:
(If this is a composite, etc. please be honest with your techniques to help others learn)
Focus-stacked 3 images (foreground rock, mid ground rocks/log, distant foliage, and a 4th shot for the water…all shot at 0.3-0.4seconds; iso31; 24mm f/11.0
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@jim_mcgovern_photography
You may only download this image to demonstrate post-processing techniques.
A very very enjoyable scene, Jim. I think you have captured the water perfectly and the backlit foliage is rendered really well.
I think I will like a slight crop from the right. With the rock on the right (midground) making that upslope to the right edge of the frame, it seems like it is a little heavy on that side. When I downloaded the file and cropped the right side a little bit, it feels a little more balanced. I am also debating about toning down the highlight or saturation on the rock on the LL corner.
I think both the composition, with it’s layers of rock and reverse S-curve of water, and your processing to dodge highlights, has accomplished what you wanted to do here Jim. The light especially, directs the viewers eyes here.
In terms of composition, I think the top half of the image is nicely balanced left/right. To me the bottom half is okay, if perhaps slightly less well balanced than the top. I like the use of the rock in the LLC, and to some degree the darker water in the LRC creates some balance with the rock on the left side. I wish there was a stronger visual element in the LRC, but you take what you have available, and as presented the balance in the bottom is okay. I don’t think a panoramic crop of the top half is the way to go, because it would lose the mossy rock in the LLC, plus some upriver flow.
I do think the two bright patches along the right frame edge are eye magnets, and would clone them away.
While I like how you used dodging of highlights to direct the viewers eye, if this were mine i would dial back the saturation in the green/yellow highlights a bit, more so on the mossy rocks, less so on the backlit trees at the top. I know the Smokies are lush, but my suggestion would be to back saturation off a bit, and let the nice warm light do more of the visual directing.
Thanks to both of you for commenting…good perspective on the right side of the image causing a bit of imbalance. While not a deal-breaker for my eye, it’s good to be made aware of it. Good call on the exposed rock to the right of the image.
@Ed_McGuirk - thanks for your comments about the saturation here. I still have difficulty with discipline in my color intensity and have yet to best cultivate my eye for when it’s overdone. There’s never an image one can’t learn from. Thanks again!
Jim, if you use TK Actions Panel, Tony Kuyper has a nice set of saturation masks that can easily deal with localized saturation adjustments. In this case, I downloaded your image, and ran a TK Saturation mask, which selects only the most saturated colors, applied the mask to a PS Hue Saturation layer, and pulled down on saturation slider to taste. YMMV
This is quite beautiful. The composition and flow are excellent - and yes, the eye flows through the scene easily and I find it easy to explore the entire scene. The processing looks great too, although I agree with Ed’s saturation tweak.
I love the purity of the water and flow. The only suggestion might be to lightly clone in a little texture in some of the what areas that have lost detail. Perhaps you have some other exposures to blend some in. Not a deal breaker though.
Also agree with cloning or mitigating the brighter patches on the slanted rock on the right.
Beautiful image. I’m thinking quite stunning as a metal print…
