During my trip to WV I noticed this very small ill defined “waterfall” about 100 yards off the path. I decided to take out my long lens and do a focus stack (I’m still not very good that these with my long lens) to try to capture as much detail as possible and otherwise most of the image would be blurry. I loved the way it seemed to bob back and forth, the smattering of color surrounding was a nice addition but I think I would have shot this in the summer or winter as well, the color was just a nice addition. Glad I shot this on the way up, it was a much more strenuous hike than I anticipated and was happy to just get back to the car when all was said and done!
What a beautiful, lovely composition, @David_Wallace. I just love the stair step water falls, and the colors surrounding both sides. The shutter speed looks perfect to me. The pool at the base of the waterfall is almost too perfect to be true. Great image!
What I find interesting is that the falls look sizable but then you see these gigantic leaves next to it and you realize just how small this scene must actually be. Don’t know if I’m the only one. I really like the composition and colors. I tried to slightly underexpose this by adjust levels to 0.92 and liked it.
@Igor_Doncov I hadn’t really noticed that juxtaposition between the size of the falls and the leaves, probably because I know how small it is in reality! It’s no more than a 6-8 ft stretch and I shot it from about 100 yards away at 300+mm. It could probably be darkened down a bit, I’ve noticed a trend in my work that I don’t love where images are a bit on the darker side so I’ve been trying to force my self to keep them brighter. I just did it as a test on mine and it really pulls me in more to the falls. I will have to consider…thanks for the suggestion.
A mini fall. Nice. The way the water is framed is quite attractive and inviting although the water seems a tad blue to me. It’s a peeve of mine, but YMMV. I like the single leaf in the water. It further emphasizes the effect of gravity in the photo - the idea of falling.
I agree with @Igor_Doncov about the size comparison between the leaves and the waterfall. My gut feeling says that the image is a little flat (not so much depth) but as my eyes wander, the lone leaf in the water says otherwise.
The lone leaf in the pool is the icing on the cake here, I look at it the same way as @Kris_Smith, it helps tell the story of falling water. I also agree with Kris about the coolness of the water. For scenes like this some people prefer cool whites ,and others neutral whites, it’s a matter of personal choice. But I agree with Kris because the relative coolness of the whites seems out of place (too cool) as compared with the warmth of the rest of the image.
Hey Dave, this is truly a nice intimate waterfall scene. I love how the leaves frame it. I can’t add anymore to what others have said, but agree that the water could be warmed up a bit…Nice work.
What a charming little mini-waterfall! I love the size comparison the leaves provide. I don’t mind the cool water as it looks so nice against the warm leaves.
Good of you to even notice this so far off the path you on. I like how the water is coming out of the top left corner and spilling in to the pool with the waterfall pointing directly at the floating leaf. Compositionally, this is really good. I don’t mind the blue tones in the water but I do agree that the whole scene could be just a tad less bright.
Thanks everyone for the suggestions, I’ve made a few tweaks. Darkening the rock in the LLC, warming the whites a bit, and using a Levels adjustment to avoid darkening the already dark areas but pull the midtones and highlights down a tad.
