River study

Image Critiques Landscape Critiques
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River study
River study3000×1516 1.2 MB

it was a warm summer morning and I looking for subjects along a trail by the river near my in-laws. It’s an area known for it’s streams and waterfalls. Being August the river was low and I put on my sandals and wondered into the river to enjoy the water and photograph the flowing water. I found this one small set of rocks which created a shape and feeling of the human form. I worked on various compositions and shutter speeds. This was my favorite. I kept the darker part of the exposure as the trees almost created a tunnel over the river with light coming from openings a little ways upstream. I enjoyed the cool water on my feet and time spent in nature listening to the water and watching the changing light.

Specific Feedback Requested

I’m not sure if the human form is apparent in this image. I went with a pano type crop to bring focus to the area of interest. I have wider images and images that show more in the bottom portion of the frame but the river is shallow and the current busy causing distractions. I kept some of the green tones as the river bank is well shaded by trees.

Technical Details

1/5 s, f/16, iso200. 105 mm on full frame (24-105) on tripod.

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Hi Bryan!

I like the subtle color and green tones you kept here - it gives the image a slight bit of extra dimension compared to a black and white. I don’t see a human form personally, but I do understand how you would, as I have many dune images people have said they’ve seen that in, with similar curves. Without knowing what’s outside the frame, I can guess that I would probably support your decision to crop in.

I think several small changes could be made to improve this one:

  • One is that I’d crop off a little bit of the left, just because everything in the image is flowing and gesturing to the right, and it’s kind of featureless and dark over there. However, the falloff from the main curving flow to darkness is kind of essential, so you don’t want to crop far enough in that you cut that off.

  • There are also a number of distracting bright areas around the edges that could stand to be vignetted - the centers of the top, bottom, and right edges.

  • You could also warp or clone out that little sliver of foamy water at the very bottom that just skirts the edge.

  • I’d also dodge up the upper-right flow of water that’s in the shade against the shore - that whole corner feels a bit empty, and brightening that flow (just the curving part, not the foamy pool after it lands) could help fill in the composition.

  • You could lighten the very darkest blacks, as their contrast is a bit distracting against the nice silvery feel elsewhere.

  • Lastly, you could darken the bluish reflections on the unlit side of the flows, so that the white water stands out more against those darker areas.

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That is really beautiful Bryan! I love that you kept that subtle touch of color, and the contrasting textures suck me in. I don’t see a human form, but that main flow of water looks like long lustrous hair to me.

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