Taken at sunrise on the Santa Fe River, near High Springs, Florida. A beautiful spring morning.
Any and all feedback, comments, and critiques are welcomed.
Is this a composite: No
Fuji GFX50S w/ 100-200 @ 111mm
1/1.6 sec @ f/16
200 ISO
Tripod
Increased Vibrance & small boost in Saturation.
Ed’s Rework
Patricia’s B&W
Diane’s B&W
Hi Bill. Love this scene and the reflections of the trees. The only thing I would suggest is a bit more saturation.
Just for fun I would like to see it converted into a b&w image.
Nice image, Bill. I played with it a bit but could not significantly improve it (or even insignificantly). I guess the point of this image is to impart movement to the river by using a slow shutter speed. One thing that struck me was that the SS was 1/1.6 sec. I don’t think I’ve ever seen that speed setting. Why not 5/8? Why would a photographer be expected to do the math to figure out that fraction? Anyhow, it’s a very nice image. Your processing is always right on - it seems to me.
Thanks @Patricia_Brundage & @Igor_Doncov !
Patricia - I will try boosting the saturation a bit. I always have an issue with saturation, trying to be careful about boosting too much, so all too often I undersaturate them.
Igor - Yeah, that’s a weird shuuter speed. It was sunrise and I wanted a good DoF so I was set the SS at what the meter told me was correct, plus I bracketed a stop on each side @ 1/3 increments. This was the best exposure. Seeing 1/1.6 sec always makes my head hurt!
Lovely, with very nice detail. A bit more color could be good – I’d play with Vibrance as well as Saturation, and have a look at slight tweaks to white balance.
Bill, this is a great image, it has a nice calm and gentle mood. And I am a sucker for mirror image reflections, with the graphic shapes of the trees, that is particularly effective here. The arrangement of the trees is very well done, I especially like the group of 3 trees on the right playing off against the one on the left.
I could see a very slight boost in saturation (less than your rework), and I think the reflection could be slightly darker, in some places it’s brighter than the subject (especially the reflection of the left tree). Here is a rework. I used TK Saturation Mask to select the least saturated colors, and then a Hue Saturation layer to increase saturation in only the less saturated colors… Then a mid-tones mask to burn the reflection.
Thank you @Diane_Miller & @Ed_McGuirk .
Thanks Ed for your rework! I think you’re correct that I oversaturated my rework; I was in a hurry and that never works out well. I added your rework above so it can be more easily compared.
Pat
Oh, this is nice, Patricia! I’ll definitely have to reconsider printing this in B&W. Thank you for posting this.
I love the B/W but took a slightly different tack on darkening the reflection – just did a mask for the entire lower (water) half with the top edge feathered a bit.and pulled down the midpoint of a curve to darken it all, with a slight reduction in contrast by bringing the left end up a bit and the right down.
I think what I like about @Ed_McGuirk’s rework is that the white dashes on the water now are better separated from the water and reflections. Water-dark, reflections-lighter, dashes-lightest.
My vote is for the second image with increased vibrance and a small boost in saturation. I like your choice of shutter speed to smooth out the water and that beautiful reflection. At the same time, the streaks in the water convey motion in the water. I also like the contrasting tonality of the cypress trunks (those in light vs. those in shadow) and I think the spacing gives the composition a nice rhythm.
Wow Bill, this is a beautiful image.
Love the mood, the composition and the feeling you’re expressing here.
For me @Ed_McGuirk work helps to enhance even more your photo.
