The photographer is looking for generalized feedback about the aesthetic and technical qualities of their image.
Description
I think this is close - but this one has been a slog. I have worked through too bright, not bright enough, too warm, too cool, too much contrast, undersaturated, oversaturated, yada, yada.
The shot was taken in a fairly dark setting - and I want to convey that. But - I am interested in truly critical thoughts. Composition, execution, too much green, what I chose to shoot, etc.
I was initially inclined to put hazy highlights up at the top of the waterfall. I think that might have worked better compositionally, but I really like the fact that this water was coming from a dark, secret place (and there was another falls above this one).
Beyond getting a number of shots from several perspectives of this waterfall - I just sat on a rock and absorbed this place for quite a long time. Ultimately, I guess that’s why I do this stuff, to help slow down and make the experience more immersive.
Thanks
Bill
Technical Details
Shot on a Nikon Z7, 24-120 @ 34mm
f/13 at 0.4/sec with ISO at 40
I focus stacked two images, one with the immediate foreground in focus, and the other for everything else. I could have used a third for a rock in the near middle distance.
Nice image! It definitely feels dark and secret. I feel your struggles with getting the right exposure, contrast and colors on a shot like this, and I think you did a great job! I love the greens. I also really like the yellow & red leaves in the foreground. One thought is that the whole collection of leaves in the foreground is a bit busy, so I wonder if dodging some of the less colorful ones and cloning or removing the partial ones would help simplify that region a bit. I’m also not sure about the creek entering from the right. It’s nice but could also be considered distracting. If it were me, I’d experiment with a vertical crop, maybe between the two trees on the right, to see if that helps focus on the leaves and waterfall. But overall really nice image and I would love to just sit there and absorb that place too!
Hi Bill, it’s truly remarkable how you’ve captured the waterfall’s journey through the forest. I can see that you’re considering the impact of different crops, which is a wonderful way to refine the storytelling in your image. A portrait crop could indeed offer a fresh perspective here. It would allow you to emphasize the verticality of the waterfall, leading the viewer’s eye from the base to the cascade tumbling down from above. This vertical orientation could also accentuate the height and grandeur of the environment, giving a sense of scale and the majesty of nature that a landscape crop might not convey as strongly.
I agree with Cathy, by narrowing the frame, you could bring attention to the intricate details of the water’s path, the textures of the rocks, and the lush moss. It’s like narrowing the scope of a story to its most essential elements; you enhance the narrative focus. It’s all about what you want to say with your image.
I also played with the contrast and added small amount of dodging in the fall itself (your idea, I think it works)
In my opinion this has many qualities of a great image. It is moody and is theatrical in a way. The rocks, trees, and branches wonderfully support the moody water emanating from the darkness. The issue I have are the bright warm (and even red) rocks at the bottom. Those colors just don’t belong with the rest of the image and really hurt it. Their location at the bottom desn’t help either. I would crop off above them. A vertical removes much of the drama on the sides so I prefer the original. Those big large boulders on the right, for example, are critical to the composition and feel of the image.
I think your thoughts helped me see the composition as the real culprit and I am playing with a couple ideas to resolve it - including cropping. On that front, I agree with Igor and don’t want to lose too much of the surroundings. A square crop almost works, and a 4 x 5 even more so - though they both have their own issues - including leaving the waterfall almost exactly in the middle of the frame.
I’m going to take a couple days away from this, but will share whatever I come up with.
Out of curiosity, was there an option to move right some? That may have started to cut off the waterfall, which would defeat the purpose, but if the waterfall could have a more right to left flow (more diagonal) I think it would be a worthy option to compare.
While I hear you on the desire to preserve the dark setting, I think it risks flattening the image a bit more than optimal for the viewers who didn’t experience the live event (wish I had…). I think you might have room to bump the contrast some, without wrecking the mood? This may go too far, but here’s an example:
Thanks John. In reviewing the shots I took that afternoon - this is unfortunately the best. In one I took to the right, the small tree to the right starts interfering with the shot. To the left, and the lower portion of the falls exits the frame into some rhododendrons in an awkward way. I have a couple where the stream below is more exposed, and they are shot too wide and there is too much of the landscape and it starts to get very messy.
One of the problems I face with this one is the entry of the stream at lower right had some blown out glare. In one edit, I tried running with this and turning it into a nice glow, but then it became a distracting element from the primary subject. And, each time I start a new edit, it is painstaking work to remove that glare.
The current version in the lab is cropped a bit from this - I think it is workable and maybe it will see the light of day. I have become obsessed with turning this into something - which probably isn’t healthy. I have much better shots of other subjects along this trail and I should really just move on. But I can’t !
