Douglas Falls, West Virginia

Douglas Falls, West Virginia near Davis. Here is a followup image to one I posted earlier that I received some excellent advice on. Looked at everything for about a week and used the lessons, I hope, in my processing of this image. As I stated earlier, this is at the waters edge down a steep hillside by rope. The water coming out of the old mines make this area look like something out of a sci fi movie. I lightened the water to show the aqua color better along with an increase of saturation. Took the reflections off a few rocks slightly and added a very minor vignette. Opened the shadows here and there in the rocks. More simple composition and one I feel gives you a better feel of the area. Toned down the exposure in the leaves in the tree on the right side as they were really bright. There was little of interest to the left of the waterfall so I did not include it. Composition work ??


Nikon D750 Nikon 24-120, tripod, ISO 100 F16 3 seconds

Comments and critiques please.

Pretty good composition. You’ve got the yellow tree on the right and the big boulder in the lrc to balance all that white on the left. I’m sure someone will mention the small bright area in the ulc.

Andrew, I do remember your earlier post from this location, and it looks like you took the feedback on that image into productive account on your return visit. The aqua water is much better presented here. Having more yellow foliage at a later date doesn’t hurt either :smile: I think this is a very good composition, I especially like the arrangement of rocks as framing elements around the edges.

My suggestions would be burn down and de-saturate the yellow patch in the extreme ULC mentioned by Igor, and add a slight vignette in the 4 corners to place further emphasis on the center of the image. But otherwise this image looks pretty good to me, nice work on your part to go back and get a stronger image.

Andrew, this composition isn’t working for me. However, I seem to be contrary to @Igor_Doncov and @Ed_McGuirk, who both consistently produce excellent composition, so take that as you will. Because the three most interesting parts of the image, the waterfall, pool and yellow tree are all out toward the edges of the frame, I keep getting pulled out of the image.

The processing looks great to me, and I like the color palette. Shutter speed also looks good to me.

You make a good point in my opinion.