I’ve been on somewhat of an extended hiatus from photography owing to having my first child in December. But, thankfully, I’m getting back to shooting again which is fantastic.
This is from a waterfall I found in Tasmania from a recent trip. I don’t normally shoot waterfalls at all, but I couldn’t help myself being amongst some of the best forest in Australia in the Tasmanian highlands for a week.
I’ve got some small things I need to fix already, namely a vignette I forgot to add to direct the eye through the frame more clearly and cloning out a bright bit of water on the left hand side of the frame.
Otherwise, i’m open to any and all feedback on my first waterfall image!
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)
Two-frame focus stack for the foreground rocks. Used a frame for the background which had a little bit of fog on my polariser, which gave it more of a ‘dreamy’ feel in addition to the 8sec shutter speed.
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First off let me say that I wish that my first waterfall image was anything close to being this remarkable! This has to be one of the most photogenic waterfalls I have ever seen either in person or in photos. The multiple layers of cascades combined with the horseshoe shape really make this appealing. I like the composition with one minor nit - it feels a bit tight on the edges of the foreground rocks. However, you may have been trying to avoid distracting elements as well. The processing seems to be a bit dreamy (above the waterfalls) but that suits the subject.
Congrats on two things. First, congrats on the birth of your first child - Perfectly good reason to keep on busy. And I’m sure you haven’t put the camera away during this time!
And of course, congrats on a beautiful waterfall image! As Brian points out, that is one heck of a gorgeous waterfall; impressive in many ways. For me, the multitudes of cascades outweighs the need for any texture - the repeating patterns of cascades is texture enough! ( I mention because we often like to see detail in the water… but in this image, I’m very good with what you’ve captured.)
I love the dreamy effect up top - and not sure really how much a vignette is needed.
My only suggestion here is an actual crop from the bottom. The gathering of moss-covered rocks at the bottom are a great addition. I’m just thinking as presented they’re almost competing with the upper half (hardly really competing against the falls…) But by cropping a bit off the bottom you move those rocks to a position of an anchor or foundation, rather than a competing element.
Ok, it’s a minor point at best. This is quite gorgeous as presented.
Small nit - maybe clone the foam near the left edge in the small pool there. minor.
Hi Sam, I agree with Brian and Lon, such a nice waterfall image! You’ve captured the texture in the multiple cascades very well. I so often struggle with exposure speed, wanting this kind of result. Nice.
I like the falls so much I do think a crop off the bottom would add a touch more emphasis to the cascades; those rocks pop just a bit much because of the space below them (I think). Your idea of a careful vignette is good. Because I like tracing my way up waterfall shot, I do find that one little left side tributary a bit curious, so I keep wondering where it goes. Silly, and so very minor, but maybe a slightly darker edge would keep me from wandering.
So nicely done, made me feel cool on a very warm day. Congrats on all accounts!
Not seeing any compositional connection between the top and bottom half of the image. Looks like two images, one green , one white, disconnected. The better judge of course is you.
TY for post
Sam, this is spectacular for a first attempt at a waterfall. Most waterfall newbies struggle with getting shutter speed to create the effect they want, you nailed it on your first try here. The processing looks very good, nice rich colors, without being over-saturated.
From a composition standpoint, as others have noted, you have two very strong subjects competing with each other for attention. And this effect is magnified by the mossy rocks and waterfall each getting 50% of the image. To make this composition work better, one of these needs to become a secondary element. Because the image is brightest at the falls, to me that should be your primary subject, and you can make the mossy rocks secondary by a crop from the bottom.
I would suggest a crop like this. I think your vignette is okay, in my rework crop I did burn the lower right corner, and the bright side stream on the left. I also think the rock on the right is tight to the edge of the frame, so in the rework, in PS I added 2% canvas to the right, and did Content Aware Fill, this creates a little more breathing room.
Sam…this is an absolutely beautiful scene…very pleasing to look at. I find it very interesting and agree with the comments above that the lack of texture in the water is made up for by the multiplicity of the cascades…tremendously appealing.
While I don’t completely agree with @stevenm comments about the lack of connection between the foreground and background, I do struggle with a sense of obstruction to visual flow. To my eye, the mossy rock garden in the foreground is just fantastic and looks like a nest of gorgeous wet cool rocks. Yet, my only struggle is visually accessing the stream from the wall of rock…there lacks a path for my eye to make the transition. This may be just my visual “experience” with your image, so I’d be interested in yours and others thoughts in this regard.
Sam, congratulations on the newborn and also for a very pleasing waterfall here. As Ed mentioned, you have nailed the shutter speed here. I also like the background forest on top of the waterfall. I do like what Ed did with the crop but I am with @Jim_McGovern here about the connection between the rocks (which are beautiful in their own right) and the waterfall. But I do think this is not a lousy first attempt at all.
Sam, this a beautiful waterfall scene and I think the processing is really very well done. I am in the group that prefers a bottom crop as @Ed_McGuirk has offered in his rework. Irregardless this is a wonderful first waterfall post!
Wow all - I didn’t expect this level of positive feedback - I really appreciate all the kind words.
Cheers Brian - agree on all fronts with this. I’ve pulled the crop in a tad tight there and I didn’t really notice it until quite a while after. Ironically, I love slathering the orton effect on my shots, but I had a much lighter touch on this one thanks to the fog on my polariser doing the job for me!
Cheers Lon - I actually had trouble finding a slower shutter speed. I considered blending in but the shortest I could get to was about 1sec (vs 8sec here), and that barely made a difference.
Yep - this one was on the list as I posted it. Fully agreed!
Full agree on all fronts here guys. When shooting my regular landscapes I love a big foreground - I’m a real sucker for getting the wide angle down low. I see now it doesn’t work as well for certain waterfall compositions, like this. I’ve gone with the crop suggested largely, and I’ve also stretched the image just a tad to enlarge the waterfall. I looked back at a video I took on location and I was surprised at how large the waterfall really was compared to my memory! It’s nice to be able to correct something like that.
Love the rework Ed - appreciate you taking the time, and I agree on all fronts. I’ve incorporated all you’ve said into my final rework.
I’m still finalising the image - I’ve made a few changes in the limited time I had between domestic duties last night to get to this result. I still need to add a little space to the right of the frame to give the foreground rocks some breathing room, but that’s about it. Apart from that I’ve added a gentle vignette to guide the eye, burned in the cascade on the left, cloned out the foam in the foreground, toned down the foreground rocks so they compete less with the waterfall and very very slightly tweaked the colour balance of the water.
Hi Sam, what a shot for your first waterfall image! I agree with Jim that the foreground feels a bit disconnected if I think about it, almost like it was chosen because having “something” in the foreground was considered necessary. But visually I think it’s great to have green surrounding the falls entirely, so it’s a good framing element that ultimately helps focus the viewer’s attention on the falls. The crop helps a lot.
I think this is a great scene to use dreamy/atmospheric “glow” techniques like you have up above the falls. That said, the glow/light painting/negative dehaze/foggy-polarizer-exposure does feel a bit “painted on” to me, because it’s bleeding into the shadows of all the foliage and tree trunks equally. If it were “real” mist/fog in the scene, it would be hazier for more distant objects, and closer objects would be more contrasty, lending that upper section depth. I would suggest using a Lights mask (or a more restrictive mask if you already used one) up top with the haze, at least partially - or masking out some of the hazy exposure through a Darks mask, particularly in the closer tree trunks, which should be contrastier. Of course that would only work if the different exposures aligned with no wind - otherwise you could just do a darkening adjustment in the shadows of the areas I described. This effect is a difficult thing to get right in a highly-detailed scene, but I think it’s worth the effort to focus on those details to make it look real.
Thanks so much for the feedback Alex - I really value having this sort of feedback from someone I look up to!
This is where the foggy polariser got me I think, becuase the the ‘glow’ added was in a very restricted area, and I did pull it lightly out of the shadows using blend-if, whereas the polariser effect was on the entirety of the image. I also did a global lifting of the blacks during the edit just to avoid those pitch black areas of nothingness, and I didn’t mask it out of the top. So looks like i’ve definitely got some candidates for burning here!
Very much like the composition and the light here. And the water texture looks great too. The extra brightness at the top has a nice sense of knowing where the light is coming from. My only thought is that the rocks at the bottom could maybe use a bit of space on either side. as could the whole scene. I wouldn’t mind seeing a bit more context to this the overall scene, though I’m also aware that this may have been the only usable crop of these elements.
One thing nobody, I think, has mentioned is how the rocks duplicate the arcs of water above them. This is a big positive in my opinion. Therefore, there is a strong connection between the two. However, due to the absence of anything between the two it does feel as though one is superimposed over the other. So there it lacks connection perspective my. I personally don’t find the crop at the bottom necessary but it does also produce a good image. More space around the sides would be good. I think it would be better if all the rocks were mossy.
@Sam_Ison Congratulations on your first child. You have your work cut out for you for the next couple decades. Trust me.
I’m not going to go over anything that has already been said about this amazing first waterfall photo. I’d hate to show you mine.
One suggestion is that it looks like you pulled out a lot of natural color out of the water. It looks bleached white to me. Even a little effect from the sky or the surrounding forest light would have given it some sort of more natural color, or one that doesn’t separate it so much from the forest itself.
I am also a fan of a little quicker shutter. Say, 1/2 to 1 sec. I feel that it doesn’t warsh out the water and it gives it some texture. That would have also helped give the water a more watery color.
