We’ve had a very hot, sunny and windy summer. The streams and waterfalls are dry, the birds want to hide away and good luck getting a flower to hold still. I decided to take a trip to the indoor botanical gardens in Buffalo which is about a 3 hour drive from my house. I left early enough to get their at opening. After taking many photos of still plants I got the urge to take a 25 mile trip to Niagara Falls. The last time I was there was in the 70s. The walkway to the falls is along the raging river that drops at the falls. It was almost scary walking next to this river. The noise of the water flowing in different directions and crashing into each other causing large plumes of spray was amazing. Along the walk, this scene stopped me in my tracks. The problem was that I brought my lenses for taking flowers not flowing water and I didn’t have my tripod. Luckily there was a tall concrete post near this scene. I used my 90mm macro, laid my backpack down on the concrete post and was able to use a longer ss to get the water the way I wanted it. Oh, I think the red is roots from the nearby tree and they were that red.
Specific Feedback Requested
Sony a7r iv 90mm macro
f/22
s/1/8
ISO 1600
ACR, Photoshop and Topaz DeNoise
Hi Donna. Great work making due with the tools you had available! Improvising a camera steady to get a longer shutter speed. I wanted to comment on this, not because I have something specific, but more of a general feeling.
I love the subjects you have here. The green plants, the red root and the water. What I do struggle with is knowing which one you want me to look at. It seems, to me, like they are almost three separate elements and i’m not sure which one is the primary one. I think the water is the main subject, but the brightness of the green plants in the foreground keeps drawing my eye to them. I’m wondering if you darkened them a bit and let the viewer recognize them as they pass by on the way to the water? I dunno, just sharing an initial reaction. I’ll study this some more and see if I come to a different opinion. This is a challenging one for me to put words to it.
You did a great job framing up everything and balancing the comp nicely! Way to go!
Hi John, I can see what you’re saying. The ole, I love everything I see got me. I did darken the bottom and side stones and the little green plant a lot. I thought about cloning out the tall green plant, but knew it would take a lot of effort to get everything behind it looking correct. I’ll play around with it tomorrow to see if I can make a better path for the viewer. I was trying to make the path the red roots first, then out to the water. Thanks a lot for these suggestions.
Hi Donna. yea, I think you nailed it with the “i love everything I see” Its often hard to selectively limit what is in our comp so that all the elements work together and that the eye goes where we want it to. The image has it all, just a little fine tuning will make it fantastic.
I agree with John in regards to the green plants. If you can solve its a good image. Take some time and clone out the green plants. Try contents aware it does a great job sometimes.
Really like the shares clarity and I think for me you nailed the water.
Hey David, thanks. I tried content aware and it made a mess of the stones and roots. I’ve done some pretty extensive cloning that came out okay, but the amount of coverage that plant makes across stones and roots where it’s the main point of interest has me hesitant to try. I did clone out the tallest branch on the tall plant after @John_Pedersen critique and that helped. I’ll see what I can do with this tomorrow.
This is very creative and interesting. I think my only suggestion would be to slightly darken the water in the top left corner. It feels a bit open and my eye escapes the scene there.
I love idea of this lush green plant in front of the water and rocks. It’s what really makes this image for me. Without it this would be like many other images.
I like this one with all parts included. You could try to darken the URC a tad. One idea to reduce the competition between elements could be to darken a tad the rocks in the FG and in the LRC.
@John_Pedersen Thanks for taking your time to critique my image. I think your suggestion really helped. On my rework 1, I darkened down the plants especially the hot spots on the tall one and cloned out the yellow leaf on it. I hope this was enough to have your eye pass by the plants.
@David.Petersen I decided to try cloning out the plants just to see what this image would look like without them and to see if I could do it and make it look real (Rework 2). I had to make up what the space would look like behind the base of the tall plant and without many pixels to choose from I ran into dealing with a lot of repeating lines. Anyway, I tried. I do think I like the plants there. I’ll see what others say. Thank you for your input. I always learn from these suggestions.
@Eric_Bennett I’m honored to have you critique my image. Your work is amazing!! I darken down the upper left corner as you suggested and I think that improved the photo (Rework 1). Thank you!
@Igor_Doncov I’m very happy that you like this image. It was a treat for me to watch all the different waves come in that completely changed the scene while I snapped away. It was had to choose the best wave pattern. All of them were unique in their own way.
@Ola_Jovall I took your suggestion of darkening down the bottom area and I slightly darkened the URC (Rework 1). I think that might help guide the viewers eye a little better. Thank you for this suggestion!
Great stuff Donna! I really like rework 1, just the subtle darkening of the plants made a huge difference to my eye. I did like #2 as well and it worked really good, but since you said you liked the plants in there, #1 is the winner for me.
Love this, love the original. Ok, the 1st repost cloning out the yellow leaf - ok, I like that better. But I’m with any of the others what like the plants there. I don’t see it as a competition of main elements, I see the plants as “accents” or contributing elements to the bigger scene - which of course is the relationship between the rushing (beautiful) water and the rocky shoreline. The colors both in the water and the rocks are wonderful and spot on, IMO.
The only further suggestion I have would be to reveal a little more detail on the face of the rock on the right. It seems it got a little dark with each repost? Another reason I like the original!
Thank you so much for your critique, Lon. I like the plants too. When I cloned them out, it didn’t look like what I saw and liked about this shot. Especially since I had to make up what the area behind the base of the tall plant looked like. I’m starting to wonder when do you change a photo so much that it doesn’t really represent what you saw and loved about it. I liked the stone that your talked about being a little lighter too. I just figured it would be too light and draw someones eye away.
I do think @John_Pedersen suggestion to darken the plants and @Eric_Bennett suggestion to darken the LUC did help this photo out. I like rework 1 the best and think I’ll lighten that stone back to where it was. I know I need to build my confidence up and sometimes just trust what caught my eye in the first place. I love getting all these critiques. Although it does get a little confusing at times, I’m very happy that photographers choose to critique my work. Maybe being confused isn’t so bad. It makes you think a little harder.
Hi Donna. Great job with the makeshift tripod setup. Nice composition. I think the weighting for attention between the water and the plants are equal and this creates a certain amount of tension. Maybe that’s something you were looking for. The water takes up a good portion of the scene but the plants make up for this with their high saturation levels. For me the water is the main star of the show. I would reduce the saturation of the plants. I went overboard with my edit, but hopefully it’s easier for you to see what I mean. Either way lovely image
Hey Donna! I just want to comment on the quality composition used here. The motion of the water encourages the direction of flow that the viewer can explore the frame freely. Well done!
Donna, this looks great. The contrast between flowing water, solid stone and living plants covers most of “life”. You’re comp. and techniques pull it all togther very well.
@David_Johnston Thanks David. I’m very glad to hear you say you like this composition. I had a lot of fun taking different shots of the water coming in and thought the colors all blended well together. By the way I watched your video Contemplative Landscape Photography and enjoyed it very much. I’ll watch your other one too. Good to hear from you.
@Mark_Seaver Thanks very much, Mark. I love what you said.
Maybe I’m headed in the right direction with photography
