I just got back from a weekend of camping in northern Wisconsin. It wasn’t a photography trip but I brought my gear of course I camped alongside a beautiful river and wanted to capture something that showed some fall color and the beauty of the river. The curved trunks of the tree caught my eye, as well as the shape of the leaves and rapids below somewhat mirroring each other.
I feel like this is neither the best nor worst image I’ve ever taken, so I am kind of lukewarm on it and want to hear your thoughts. Fire away!
What technical feedback would you like if any?
Anything you’ve got. Is the composition cohesive? How’s the shutter speed for your taste in the water? Any processing suggestions?
What artistic feedback would you like if any?
Any and all. Does this image work for you?
Any pertinent technical details:
Nikon D610, 26mm, f/8, 1/2sec, ISO100
You may only download this image to demonstrate post-processing techniques.
Brent, this composition works well for me. The processing looks really nice and not over done. One thought, maybe a small crop on the right side but that is really a tough call? Maybe others will have some thoughts. Beautiful work!
This is a really beautiful scene. I love the tree at peak color, and the way the trunks fan out. The fallen leaves on the ground give the land a nice carpet of warm tones, and the flowing water has a really clean look to it in the foreground. I think all the elements work quite well here. I do wish that the foreground better interacted with the background, but that is difficult to do with a scene like this. One thing that seemed to help a bit was dodging the rocks along the distant shore a bit to attract a bit more attention to them, then burn down the whitewater in the lower left a bit to minimize attention there. That also allowed me to dodge some of the water in the middle area that kind of leads to the tree in the background. It was all very subtle, but it did seem to attract some attention from the water back toward the tree.
Great image Brent - I really like the contrast between the trees and water. Warm vs cool etc. I’d like to see a little more water in the comp. The bright white water leads my eyes out of frame a little - it wants to see a little more there. I think the shutter speed is spot on too - my preference would have been for a 1/3 or 2/3 of a stop longer, but that’s simply personal taste. The tree in the top left could do with a hair of dodging too but I’m really getting nitpicky at this stage. I guess it’s those 1% things that count though, right! Really enjoying seeing all the work you’re posting here though.
I cropped a tiny bit off the right, and also dodge and burned as Ben noted. I like both of those, so thank you for the advice.
I took like, 100 of exposures of this at varying focal lengths since it was overcast and not windy so the conditions were pretty steady. The 1 second exposures look pretty good, but I am happy with the one I have. Like you said Sam, it’s probably just a personal taste thing.
There actually is a little extra space at the bottom I cropped off at the beginning so bringing it back now would be a pain, but it included a bunch more rapids right on the edge of the frame that I found distracting. I think if it were calmer water down there a little more space would be nice.
I think your have been given some very good advise already. I think the subtle changes you made improve the image a lot. For instance, it appears that you toned down the white water in the rapids in the lower left and my eye is not attracted to it as much. Very nice image.
I camped alongside a beautiful river and wanted to capture something that showed some fall color and the beauty of the river. The curved trunks of the tree caught my eye, as well as the shape of the leaves and rapids below somewhat mirroring each other.