The photographer is looking for generalized feedback about the aesthetic and technical qualities of their image.
Description
Approaching a small river, this scene immediately caught my eye. I liked the way the light highlighted the white of the water and the diagonal line it created. The rock to me felt trapped in the flow, although it will inevitably one day shift… hence the title.
Specific Feedback
I don’t have any specific feedback I’m looking for here, just your overall thoughts about the image.
Technical Details
GFX 50 S II
100-200 lens
Critique Template
Use of the template is optional, but it can help spark ideas.
Dom, if you told me that was a painting I’d have believed you. That’s a lovely, restful shot. I love the water movement, the foam and the soft colours.
My only C&C is that its a bit dark in the top RH corner.
Love this image. There is just the right amount of blur here to suggest movement and yet show detail that defines the movement. And by that I don’t mean just the whitewater aread. The water over the submerged rocks has that look you often see where it’s both moving and yet still. I also like the rich colors and the large range of tones. Given the subject matter I think this composition is good. I don’t think you would like to crop off some of the bottom and elongate it because that would emphasize even more the difference between the left and right half. Actually a small crop to just above the bottom rock might work but that’s being pretty nitty. I congratulate you for coming up with something like this as you don’t see this in reality and have to experiment.
@Mark_Orchard I think some of the painterly look comes from lighting, this was taken under a canopy of trees with sun coming in at an angle, that’s picked out some elements and put others in shade. I also did a lot of work to pull out some areas with clarity and adjustments to highlights and contrast. But that look is one of the things I really wanted from this.
@Igor_Doncov thanks for your kind comments, I’m not sure I follow you though on ‘you don’t see this in reality’ would you mind expanding on that?
Sure. This is an impressionistic image. We see different parts of reality (water) and put it together in the brain and make sense of it. The swirls of water doesn’t really reflect reality. Motion is really a sequence of frozen moments played over time. Also there is a bit of luck involved. The water is moving and when you freeze it with a slow shutter speed you know only approximately what you’re going to get. You can’t compose accurately. The tonal value arrangement is changing constantly for one and for another you don’t see on your preview screen what you’re going to get because the slow shutter speed results can’t be previsualized accurately.
Actually, we don’t really see reality. Each person sees reality in a different way for many reasons. It’s a big subject though. Many people believe that the f/64 group was into capturing reality but that’s not true. They were trying to capture in the best way that the machine (camera) could render it. They call it hyperreality, or some such thing.
Here is reality. Palms moving. I can shoot this with a slow shutter speed but it won’t look like this. It doesn’t even duplicate the experience of seeing movement.
I’ve recently come a good book that’s related to this subject - Art and Visual Perception. It turns out that we perceive movement in still subjects. For examples: a concave design gives the impression of movement from inside to the outside (that bloated look) and a convex design suggest forces moving from outside to within. My conclusion is that it’s better to compose for perception rather than try to mimic reality faithfully. Or better yet if you can marry reality and perception perfectly then you’ve really got something.
That’s interesting - I’ll have to see if I can find a copy, I’d like to read more books on art generally as so much applies to photography. I guess the sentiment around seeing movement in stationary things is a bit like looking at a Ferrari, or other sports car, they’re often styled to look dynamic and moving even when still.
Tsumani is a very good and interesting example - that image bears little resemblance to reality and yet has such a power and an immediate feeling of helplessness , inevitability and impending doom
Hi Dom,
I have to say that I am really liking this image as I find it quite impressionistic; almost painterly. The transition of light is very striking as is the implied water movement. I quite like that pointy rock along with the light illuminating it. Do you happen to have any files where that rock is a little lower in the frame as I think that would work as well? Very nicely done!
Thanks Ed. No, that is something I tried for in the field but just out of frame at the top is a lot of just debris and such which would have made the frame too messy. I did experiment with a few other crops but I felt this was the best balance.
Rather than just cleverly plagiarize Igor’s words, I’ll just simply say that I couldn’t have said that better.
I too love this image! The white-water and texture/motion of the water mixed with the rich, dark tones of the submerged rock is just a beautiful combination.
“both moving and yet still” could be the subject of it’s own discussion, but I see this too - not only in this imag, but out in the field too. The water texture and motion in this is just perfect for me.
I would agree mitigating that softer rock on the bottom edge. Perhaps even just burning/painting it a little darker on the edge would do the trick.
Love this image Dom! Beautifully seen and executed.
This is photo art…not because of excessive manipulation but because it’s as much art as it is a photograph. That’s not always the case although we all strive for it.
To quote Lon… “Rather than just cleverly plagiarize Igor’s words, I’ll just simply say that I couldn’t have said that better.”
