Hello everyone, this is the first photo I post in NPN, please feel free to critique !
The image was taken on a Sunday hike at Mont-Saint-Hilaire, Qc. The light was pretty harsh but ended up being not as bad as I tought. I tried different shutter speed, this is the one I prefer.
What technical feedback would you like if any?
any
What artistic feedback would you like if any?
any
Pertinent technical details or techniques:
(If this is a composite, etc. please be honest with your techniques to help others learn)
Ć’/11.0
40.0 mm
1/5
ISO100
Edited with Lightroom
Welcome Nicholas. I think you’ll find this is a great community in which to share your photographs as well as your thoughts and feelings about other people’s work. The strongest aspect of this image, for me, is the black water breaking through the white snow. Contrast is always a good way to create drama and draw the eye. When taking a photograph I always want to be asking myself not what this is a picture “of” but what is this picture “about.” As my teacher, David DuChemin often reminds me, when we take or show a picture we are essentially saying, “Look at that!” So the question I would ask you is, what is the “that” in your picture? If you can be clear with yourself about the “that” then you can begin to pare away anything that doesn’t support it. Sometimes that means being quite brutal. In your picture, for example, there are lots nice textures and light on the trees and so on, but do they support what it is you want me to look at and experience or do they do the exact opposite and pull my eye away? If this is a picture about the contrast between the black water and the snow then you might have tried a wider lens and gotten in closer and lower to see if you could better isolate what the picture is about. Given the image you have posted here, you might consider cropping from the top at least down to where the log is entering the frame from the right and possibly crop a little off the left. Give that a try and see how it feels too you. For future reference, stay open to other possibilities. I’m noticing the wonderful ice crystals that have formed on the left side of the black water. Sometimes we want to keep working our camera and our point of view as we grope our way towards the picture we’re actually trying to make but haven’t quite yet seen. Keep shooting, my friend. Looking forward to seeing more of your work.
I like what you’ve captured and presented here and I think you handled the exposure and processing beautifully. I can see what you meant about light being a little harsh? But actually, I would call this dappled light and I think that even the hotter spots in the snow don’t really even look washed out at all - so again, kudos on the processing and handling of that light.
I think the main attraction is of course the flow of the water, over the rock and under the snow pack. And I really like the detail of the ice on the edges framing the flowing water (shutter speed excellent too.)
To one of Kerry’s points, I would agree that the inclusion of so much up top kind of takes away the impact of the water and ice at the bottom creating a sort of split image. I would also agree with a crop up top. Cropping about, say 1/2 of the trees up top might create the situation where the trees and rock, would accent the overall image rather than compete. AND while still providing some context of location and story telling.
Other than that I can’t think of much to suggest. You’ve done an excellent job from capture to presentation.
Welcome aboard. We look forward to your images and participation in the community!
Hi @nicolas, welcome to NPN. Really good compostion. I love the contrast between water and ice. Did you try to post process in B/W? I think it can work better, it would be helpful also for the upper part of the image. Thanks for sharing.
Hi Nicolas, and welcome to NPN, I enjoyed seeing your first post here. It was also good to see some snow and ice in Quebec, this winter has been so mild where I live in Massachusetts, these type of opportunities have been few and far between.
I think the image is very well handled technically, exposure, contrast, a nice shutter speed for the water, etc., that has all been very well handled. Getting waterfalls to come out well in mixed light like you have here (as opposed to overcast), is not always easy to do, but you have done a great job with the light here.
I think @Kerry_Gordon has some very insightful comments on the more artistic/creative aspects of the image. Don’t get me wrong, you have good composition here, there aren’t any “flaws” in the composition. But I think Kerry makes some good points about thinking harder about what is being “said” with the image. For example, I too look at those icicles along the left side of the falls and say, I’d love to zoom in on that with a telephoto because they are very interesting.
In another recent post by @Matt_Lancaster we had a discussion of “imaginative” vs. "representational’ images. I think your shot here leans more towards a representational image, it’s a well executed shot of the falls in its environment. There is nothing wrong with shooting representational images per se. I think the comments you are getting here reflect encouragement to also consider more “imaginative” treatments, such as perhaps a tighter more abstract shot of those icicles. If I was shooting a scene like this, I would try doing both approaches, starting off with a shot of the overall scene, and then looking for smaller elements that look interesting, like the icicles. Both approaches have merit, but it is amazing how the smaller things can sometimes have large impact too.
Nicholas, welcome to NPN. This is a fine looking first post. I almost totally agree with Lon. The icy edges and the falling water are very attractive. Including some of the top adds context, but cropping that a bit emphasizes the ice, snow and water. I don’t know if it’s possible here, but shooting from higher up with a longer lens could be another option for emphasizing the falls.
Hi Nicolas, and welcome to NPN! I hope you find this a great learning experience as so many of us do.
I really like this image. The most interesting thing is the unusual feature of the hole in the snow/ice with the water flowing through it - which you captured well through a sufficiently long exposure to blur the water. I would experiment with various shutter speeds to see which ones give you the most interesting or unusual effects.
I also like the formations of ice around the edges of the hole. I wonder how many compositions of ice and flowing water you could find that juxtapose water in two phases of matter - solid and liquid - as an expose on water. And what if you returned on a day when a little vapor was present to show three phases? That could be a sellable image.
Compositionally, while I appreciate inclusion of the trees for context I’m not sure they contribute to this image - at least not in this composition - since the subject is the hole in the ice and the water.
Lastly, since snow reflects light so well, I would consider returning to this location to photograph this subject at sunrise or sunset when the light is magical. It could be otherworldly!!
Looking forward to seeing more of your images, Nicolas!
Thank you all, for the comments and welcome, I appreciate it. I’ll go back this week-end but I doubt it’ll be as nice, it’s been raining a lot this week. I could have tried other lens too, maybe the 100mm could have been nice for a closer shot of ice details… hummm…
Here’s a different crop (4x5) of the same composition with less trees in the frame. Thanks again !
Hi Nicolas. You’ve been given some good suggestions on this thread about imaginative vs representational approach to image making. The only technical issue I see here is that you have a DOF problem, i.e. your foreground is out of focus. Due to the fact that this is snow it’s not really that noticeable. Your water to infinity is spot on. Perhaps a smaller aperture than f/11 would have fixed it.
