Thanks for your comments on my last photo. Continuing with the streams of Baxter State Park, here’s a different stream with much less fall color, but I liked all the opposing diagonals in this image.
Single RAW file processed twice for the land and sky.
5D2, 24-105 @ 24
f/11, 1/13s, ISO100
TK curves adjustments
Craig, this is a nice classic image of the kind of rapids that I am very familiar with. You’ve chosen a perfect POV for giving the reader a sense of depth, power and motion. I think your shutter speed shows off the water’s movement well (personally, I like to go a bit slower, around an ⅛ th of a second but that’s a question of artistic choice). That all being said, I think you can make more of what you’ve got here. I find the image quite flat despite the POV. Again, personally, I’d consider going to B&W. The colours here aren’t really what this image is about in my opinion. Rather it is about the dynamism that is apparent, not only in the water but all of the diagonals in this image. In B&W you could make much more, for example, of the sky and especially, work with the light and texture in the forest, particularly on the left side of the frame. I mean, the left side of the frame is kind of dead but there is a lot in there of interest that I think you could really bring out, especially in B&W through uping the midtone contrast and dodging and burning. There’s some really nice light and texture in the forest, left and right, that you could exploit to take this image up another notch.
Yeah, the composition here really has a nice X shape pattern to it. It doesn’t always have to be about fall color, I think the shape of the falls and tree here are enough to make the image work. My only suggestion might be to add a little mid-tone contrast to the sky, and pull out a little more texture in the clouds.
Yes, this is quite different from the previous one. For me this is less about beauty and more about the raw wildness of the Canadian outback (even though it’s Maine). This is the feeling Kerry was trying to show in his canoe trips. The subject reminds me of Winslow Homer’s work. I would raise the highlights of the forest and rocks on the left bank just a tad and optionally cool the image a tad even less.
You could not ask for a better POV of the stream, Craig. Your chosen SS also works beautifully and has captured some wonderful details and textures in the water. I hope you do not mind, but since the lighting is a bit flat and there is no fall color to speak of I tried this in B&W and this is what I came up with. Looks like you had a great trip photographically.
Thanks @Kerry_Gordon, @Ed_McGuirk, @Igor_Doncov and @Ed_Lowe!
You’re absolutely right, the color here is just not very interesting. I’m still very new with B&W, so I almost never think to do that myself.
Igor and Ed M, I may revisit the color processing later because I still do like the color version, but I was quite excited about Ed L’s B&W re-work, so I worked up my own.
That B&W rework is so much more powerful. Well done!
I actually prefer the colored version. It’s a difficult comparison because the image has changed drastically.
