Critique Style Requested: In-depth
The photographer has shared comprehensive information about their intent and creative vision for this image. Please examine the details and offer feedback on how they can most effectively realize their vision.
Self Critique
The autumn colors and fast flowing water.
Creative direction
Looking to capture the essence of autumn in the Northern forest. The fast flowing water doesn’t exactly make this a serene “Sit Down and Relax” photo but it does say “Hey! Look at Me!”
Specific Feedback
I would like feed back on the composition. I captured photos using different shutter speeds and 1.0s seemed to workout the best for this scene. How do you feel about the tree on the left and the saplings in the foreground? What are your feelings as a subject? How did I do as far as WB, Saturation, etc.?
Technical Details
Canon 5D IV | ef17-40 @ 29mm | f22 | 1.0s | ISO 100
Processed using ACR and Photoshop
Light burning on a few bright areas of water | Healing tools to cleanup various debris
Description
One of my sons and I took a few days to visit Michigan’s Upper Peninsula to photograph waterfalls. While we were probably a week late for maximum Autumn colors, the area had several days of rain before we arrived to swollen the streams. It was cloudy most of our visit, which was perfect for photographing waterfalls.
1 Like
David, I hope you stayed dry making this excellent image; one could get washed away, eh? I like the composition. The water has a nice visual flow leading the viewer from top to out at the lower right. I’m OK with the tree on the left side. I tinkered some and cloned out the saplings using PS new remove tool. You may get the cloning better than I did as I worked quickly. I made several passes of the remove tool to get the saplings all out. About the shutter speed of the water, what did it look like at about 1/2 second? Is it a bit too smooth, ghostly looking? It’s just a matter of your preference. Also, I lowered the saturation on the yellow branches at top; maybe I went a bit far - just adjust to your taste if at all.
I did this to put less attention on that bright yellow and more attention on the water. Overall, you have a terrific image.
Wonderful image. I agree with Larry de-emphasizing the bright yellow leaves at the top. I like the effect of the shutter speed you chose.
I really like the image. I like the shape of the stream and the strong tree in your direct view that draws you into the picture and leads you to the yellow leaves. I also really like the red and yellow reflections in the water which adds interest. The shutter speed to my taste is a bit too slow as at the front of the picture they lose a little of their water feel. But this is truly personal and I always play around with many shutter options till I land the one I like. But really nice picture that gets you inside the fall scence.
It’s a lovely image. Beautiful colors and water blur. I’m not loving the tree on the left side. You could consider cropping it out, like this:
Hi, David. Well, I like the tree on the left. One of the things we do as landscape photographers is to invite our viewers to feel like they are standing in our shoes. Adding visual depth to a scene often does that, and the tree on the left creates a depth. I feel like I am standing by that tree, peering into this lovely scene. So I vote for keeping that tree as a framing. I agree with toning down the bright yellow tree at the top, but only a little bit or it won’t look realistic to all the other rich colors. Nice job of seeing this and getting a lovely texture in the 1 second exposure.
Classic fall forest stream image, David. Tremendous. Love the feel of the flowing water. This could have been a longer exposure to really smooth out the water, like a minute or 2, but as you stated, that would not be the feeling you are attempting to achieve. I think the water here is perfect. Good job toning down the brightness of the yellow, which originally didn’t match the overall feeling of the scene. It does now.
I opened up the shadows and cropped from the left to just before the color started to appear. The tree remaining at the bottom is good, but clone out the 2-3 small fragments at the bottom of the framed and other fragments along the left edge. The reason that I didn’t crop any tighter from the left is that I wanted as much color as I could get which necessitated leaving a little more of the tree partial, but since it’s out of the path of the water, I don’t see it as a distraction. Outstanding fall image!
Thank you Tony and everyone else for taking the time to review and comment on my photo. Sorry for the delayed response. It’s been busy.
I have a new edited photo based on everyone’s comments. I decided that I like this photo in 4:3 format so I cropped in from the BLC. This removed some of the stream, but I think that I’m OK with it. I also brought up the shadows (a touch); lowered the saturation on the yellows (a touch) and lowered the saturation of the silt in the water. I used a masked to isolate the silt. I cloned out some of the foliage on the bottom left side. I had problems with the water though and I’m not sure how I feel about the water in this edit.
Your input on my edits are appreciated. Thank you.
1 Like
![Hurricane River 1440x960 _32A9703.20191022[1]C01.jpeg](https://images.naturephotographers.network/original/3X/a/9/a924a033aa63708b41ebd94edf8d1b238ff66f67.jpeg)
