I captured this shot during a brief visit to the Killarney region of Ireland (so not United Kingdom - we need an Ireland tag!) at the start of June. I couldn’t have asked for better timing for the business trip that got me over there as the Rhododendron were blooming beautifully.
I really love this shot, mainly looking for outside perspectives before I share and make available for prints on my site.
As always, thanks in advance for any feedback!
What technical feedback would you like if any?
Composition and post-processing
What artistic feedback would you like if any?
Regarding the edit: overall exposure, colors, dodge/burn
Pertinent technical details or techniques:
Single shot: Canon EOS R | Tamron SP 24-70mm G2 @ 50mm | RF Circular Polarizer Mount Adapter
ISO 50 | 1.0 second @ f/16.0
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Beautiful, with a very painterly look. Real minor but I might burn the white water leaving the frame on the right below center and maybe lightly burn the leaves just above the rock also on the right. Just trying to keep the attention more toward the center of the image. Nice to combine photography with your business.
The colours look good to me. They’re on the warm side but I think it suits the scene.
The exposure looks good to me. I like the transition from dark to light in the frame.
I agree with Harley on burning the water on the right. That whitewater to still water transition is one of the more contrasty parts of the image and pulls the eye slightly.
I love this shot. The motion blur is a great effect I feel. That and the light creates a serene mood.
I would like to see a little more at the bottom. I want to see the stream become one. The very centered composition is a little bit of a problem for me. Very beautiful image even so.
Beautiful! Very dreamy, and yes painterly as Harley mentioned. The light, color/saturation are all gorgeous. This indeed should make a great print.
A couple of eye catchers for me considering you may print this. Harley mentioned the horizontal band of white water LR, lower right. I could see burning that a tad - but not so much that it no longer belongs in the scene - ie. have to remember it’s “white water.” Or consider a major clone. I’m not sure it’s that much of a distraction to warrant cloning though.
And I’m undecided about the single cascade on the left below center. My eye gets pulled there, just not convinced about getting rid of it or toning it down. Just thought I would mention. You get to decide…
Not sure if you darkened the larger boulders at the bottom of the frame for the vignette (the lighting looks natural. I’m just wondering if a very slight increase in luminosity in the two larger rocks along the bottom.
Minor stuff to consider. Definitely a wall hanger.
Thank you all for the thoughtful feedback. Looking at it with your input I can see that the whitewater on the right does pull the eye a bit; I played with that to tone it down without making it grey. Lon, I kind of like the little cascade on the left but I can see how it can draw the eye away from the center of the frame just a tad too much, and have toned it down a bit, too (I actually dodged that area originally to make it pop more ). I did some light dodging on those rocks in the foreground, as well.
I also burned (slightly) the leaves around the fern growing out of the rock on the right to try to make that detail stand out just a bit more. I like that little something added by the fern but it seemed to blend in a bit against the green background.
Other than those adjustments, I removed a rock I hadn’t noticed before that was just creeping into frame on the bottom edge and cloned out a stick in the water towards the lower right corner that caught my eye.
Hi Michael, what a complete and balanced composition! I like this image a lot. The changes you’ve made with the cascades worked well.
I know you may have flattened layers and may not want to go back to the raw stage, but especially if you imported your raw as a smart object, I would suggest going back and trying a cooler white balance. I don’t mind the warm light, but the warmth is pervasive even in the shadows here, and it gives all the light a “painted in” feeling for me. Everything is a bit yellowish, even the greens, so there’s not much separation of color. I really think those pink flowers, the greens of the foliage, and the water would pop big time if the raw white balance was cooler.
The other thing for me with the light painting is that it appears to be washing out the shadows, particularly in the upper left. I understand that you’re going for a dreamy feel and you want the light to be spilling in up there, but I think it just needs to be masked out of the mid-shadows there a bit.
Maybe something like this? I took it into ACR filter and lowered the white balance -15, and saturation +10 to compensate for how that washed it out since it’s a JPEG I was working on. I then masked out this adjustment at the bottom and bottom-right, since those areas were already cooler than the rest and they became blue. Then I used a curves layer to darken with a luminosity mask (darks 2 minus darks 4) in the upper left quadrant and in the center-left rocks in the stream.
@Alex_Noriega, wow… thank you for the tremendous feedback and details of how you tweaked this! I’ve been surprised most have said the colors look good as, even though I’ve been happy with the version I’ve created, I, too, have felt it was touch warm and yellow (even after dropping the overall color temp before I posted the original here).
The good news is I don’t have to worry about a flattened image as I’m one of those stubborn photographers who does just about everything in Lightroom. I’ve added some glow to the upper left area with a local radial adjustment, may be able to play around with the white balance of that and range masking to back it off a bit and bring back those mid-shadows. I love that your edit doesn’t look different at first glance; it doesn’t lose what I like about the image while still toning down the warmth and yellows that have been slightly bothering me.
I’ll share my update, hopefully later this evening (trying to get a blog post out tomorrow…).
@Alex_Noriega and @Nathan_Klein… how’s this look? It was a pretty simple tweak. I drew down the warmth on the sun glow and pulled it out of the shadows by raising the bottom threshold of the luminosity range mask on that same adjustment. I then used a brush to darken the shadows and add some contrast in the upper left corner. Last piece was using the HSL hue adjustment to shift things from yellow to green just a hair.
Your repost look fantastic, Michael. This scene is lovely and has a magical fairy tale feel to it. The soft subdued lighting has bathed the scene in a soft wonderful glow which was perfect for this image. This will make a lovely print for someone’s wall.
Can’t really add much to what has already been said and commented on here, but Killarney is one of my absolute favorite places! Was this at Torc Waterfall, by chance? A really lovely capture!
Interesting. I like the adjusted look but I also like the yellow version, particularly the first where the shadows were lighter. Can’t say one is better than the other.
I feel somewhat similar but comparing the two I give the edge to my latest update as it’s more true to what I saw in person while still retaining the slightly painterly look and feel of the edit. I could probably go ahead with either one, though.
Exquisite image, Michael. I have a similar reaction to @Igor_Doncov in that while I slightly prefer the cooler color rendering of the repost, I think you’ve lost some of the lighter dreamy look of the original post.
@Igor_Doncov@Dave_Dillemuth … the struggle is real! I think at this point I’m happier with the latest edit but I do understand your thoughts on the warmer image.
). I did some light dodging on those rocks in the foreground, as well.
I think at this point I’m happier with the latest edit but I do understand your thoughts on the warmer image.