Critique Style Requested: Standard
The photographer is looking for generalized feedback about the aesthetic and technical qualities of their image.
This is a fast-moving stream in central Arizona.
All comments are welcome.
ISO 800, 230mm, f/45, 1/8th sec. That’s what the EXIF data says but I don’t remember using such an odd setting.
Hi Don,
I like the composition here. I’m a fool for fast water and steadfast rocks. In this one, there is something about the shutter speed that makes me uneasy. That’s not necessarily a bad thing, just an observation. It’s perhaps too slow to capture crisp texture and too fast to get a milky water effect, and the result is a kind of splashy chaos. It’s how the water might seem if I were kayaking through rapids, freaked out about the swiftness, and things became slow motion.
If that’s the effect you wanted (impression of a swift-water rescue), then it works for me. I’m hoping you get more feedback on this one. I am curious to see what others think.
ML
Thanks for commenting, Marylynne. I was experimenting with a lot of different shutter speeds. At 1/8th of a second, this was an in-between speed. It was fast enough not to produce a blur , and to get some definition in the waves, but slow enough not to freeze droplets. I thought it captured what I was seeing. That doesn’t mean it will sing to anyone else.
This image is surprisingly better when viewed at full size, and I think it has to do with that shutter speed. The textures are a mix, as Marylynne notes, but here I think it works very well. (But, it’s only at the full-size view that it really hits.)
At first I thought it would be better if the rock were a little to the left of where it is, but it’s grown on me and I think it works well as is.
Really nice Don. I hope people take the time to open this large, because (at least for me) it made a big difference.
