The photographer is looking for generalized feedback about the aesthetic and technical qualities of their image.
Description
I go up to the Maroon Bells wilderness area about 25 times from May to November. This particular evening I was hoping to get a sunset, but as with Colorado, drive 30 miles and the weather will be totally different especially at 9,000 feet. When I got there about 6:30pm the bells were shrouded in clouds with a light rain coming down. The chance of a sunset photo was lost. So I decided to hike around and see what other locations or compositions I could find. Started hiking down Maroon Creek and found this great composition, but I needed to be on the other side of the creek. So I back tracked to the bridge, crossed back over and hiked back down to the area. Set up the tripod, got the camera settings set and took about twenty photos. The best part is that I had the settings dialed in as what you see in the photo is what I saw on the screen on my camera at the time of the shot. This photo has won several awards and I have sold this print framed at seveal exhibitions.
Specific Feedback
The overall photo, the composition, the flow of the water (i.e. too smooth, just right, or not enough), color and whatever else you want to comment on.
Technical Details
Photo location: Maroon Creek about 100 yards down from Maroon Lake. Photo taken on 7.30.22 at 8:14pm
Pentax K1 MII
Lens 28-105mm, shot at 40mm
f/8, ISO200, 20 seconds
Long exposure
Edited on Lightroom. Decreased highlights, raised shadows, balanced out the whites and darks. Slight increased of dehaze and clarity.
Critique Template
Use of the template is optional, but it can help spark ideas.
Hey @chip1 - great to see you here!
Fun fact - Chip was my residence hall asst. director when I was an RA in college over 20 years ago.
So here are some thoughts I have on this one, Chip!
Some of this is personal preference, so take it with a grain of salt.
When it comes to waterfall / creek images, I’ve come to prefer to see some texture in the water - which means a lot of experimentation with shutter speeds. I’ve found somewhere between 1/15th and 1/4th of a second can offer nice results where you get the best of both worlds.
Here, the water above the boulder and left of the boulder as well as above the log are super bright compared with the rest of the water, which forces some tonal imbalance - you might think about further burning down some of those areas to make them more closely match say - this area here:
Also, noticve some of the glare on that rock - I would recommend using a CPL to eliminate some of the glare here as well as on other reflective surfaces like the wet log.
Another thought for this image is that the big boulder is a nice addition and feels like the main subject here, so perhaps a closer crop could work… otherwise I feel like the composition lacks intent in terms of what you want the viewer to look at - this is always hard with creek scenes like this IMO as you have that log in the middle that breaks up the middle ground so its almost like 2 photos in one.
I like the image, but feel the log running horizontally across the whole image kinda breaks up the “flow” a little bit. And there are a few spots where the water has lost all texture and the highlights are clipped. Other than that quite nice.
Beautiful work. One thing I would try would be to warm the image just a bit. That should change the greens to a more pleasing cyan. The image has a cold sense to it.
