What changed: I agree about the original boulders, so I deleted that burning I did there on rev. 1. I had zero saturation or vibrance in this image. I selectively brightened up the leaves a bit, and gave them a little saturation bump. Not much, just enough to see the difference (to my eye).
What a gorgeous view! The soft subtle light in the BG trees is gorgeous and I am loving the details and textures in the water with your chosen SS. I also quite like your POV as the creek winds it’s way through the scene and exits in the LLC. I also think the subdued color palette works really well here. I only have one tiny suggestion and that would be to ever so slightly darken the top of the flat rock on the left side of the frame. This has a wonderful peaceful vibe that I find very inviting.
Jonathan, as others have said, this is a very peaceful and inviting view. The S curve of the stream (and it’s whiteness) lead the eyes back to the subtle green glow of the forest.
Sorry, a bit late here, but had to comment. Other’s have described similarly, but what a peaceful and lovely stream landscape. The composition is excellent with the water flowing right in to the living room, and how it leads the eye in and around the scene. Great balance between the water (very nice texture in there), the rocks/boulders and the background forest and greenery.
I think I’ll be different and say that I think I liked the tonalities in the rocks in general with your original post. The rework with the extra burning has kinda made the rocks in general more monochromatic - if that makes sense. I like the varying tonality in the original.
The leaves in the LRC? A case of wanting to see more of the rock and leaves, or none at all. I think it works just as well with the leaves gone.
The last thing I would comment on is the saturation. I’m gonna go out on a limb and bet you had restraint. I don’t mean in a bad way, but in a way we all ask ourselves, did we go too far? And then maybe back off? Personally, I think you have a little wiggle room to not only tweak the saturation, but also the luminosity. The backlit, bg vegetation looks awesome and I think you have depicted quite naturally. Perhaps a tweak there, but also boosting some of the other vegetation that’s not backlit. Like the greenery in the URC for example. And I’m talking, very minor adjustments. In the end though,you’ve processed this beautifully - and it really comes down to personal choice and preferences.
Classic, boulder strewn, cascading forest stream, composition. I like the s curve of the water leading to the bright forest in the BG. This is just a personal preference, but I might try a radial filter to brighten and saturate that area even more.
This is a wonderful scene, and you did a good job on the composition. I love the creek wandering through the image, and the shutter speed was perfect.
I do agree with @Lon_Overacker and @Michael_Lowe regarding boosting the saturation in the greens and yellows just a bit. It doesn’t need much.
The boulders look better in the original image, I think. If they still bother you, how about a burn somewhere between the original and the updated version?
I’m late too but glad I found this lovely scene! I can’t add anything to the thoughtful comments above so will leave it to your taste – you can hardly go wrong with this wonderful scene!
Thanks gentlemen, I incorporated your thoughts, agree with all of them I like rev 2 the best. @Lon_Overacker I use very little vibrance or saturation in any of my images. I usually get some from adjusting contrast and or the white and black points (which do effect saturation). In this specific image I had zero, but normally I would have 4-9 vibrance settings depending on the image.
