Here is another attempt of mine for shooting landscapes on the streams of the Great Smoky Mountains. I live eight hours away from the Smokies so this is something I rarely get to do. I’d appreciate any feedback - composition, technical, processing.
Canon 40D, 17-55mm EFS
ISO 100, f10, 3/5s
Lovely image IMO. I like the composition. Water is a little bright for my taste. Looks like you could have used a polarizer to cut some of the glare. Also I would try to clone out the OOF leaves in LRC.
Pleasing scene Allen…my eyes go from the cascade in the LLC to the cascade more distantly in the URC. I like how these two are transposed as a diagonal. The rocks in the center are prominent and can be viewed as an anchor or resting place for my eyes . The sharpness throughout is great with the exception of the OOF leaves in the LRC. I like that mossy rock as it grounds the scene, but would have liked it a bit more. To me, the image is primarily about the stream with the cascades as prominent elements. I would like to have seen a little more of the cascade in the LLC, but that’s my taste and eye. What were you most interested in when you saw this scene and what did you most want to convey within it? Thanks for sharing and come back to the Smokies often - never the same trip twice!
Allen, a beautiful scene and a wonderful cascades. The bright water blur on the LL corner is the biggest distraction for me although I think losing some of the OOF leaves on the LR corner is also a good thing.
Solid image, Allen. I might warm it up just a bit and also consider a very slight CCW rotation(?).
I agree with this suggestion. A bit more warmth will infuse life into this image. Currently it looks like it was an overcast day.
Thanks for the comments everyone - gives me a lot to think about and put into practice.
@Jim_McGovern, I really like being immersed in the green around these mountain streams with the cascades and rushing water. Very refreshing. In this scene, I most liked the small cascades in the upper right with the two flows following lower in the stream. All the greenery around the stream reminds me of being enveloped into this environment.
Allen,
This is quite a beautiful and serene river landscape. I really like the balance between the forest and greens in general and the river with the gentle cascades throughout. I love the texture in the water and think the shutter speed chosen works beautifully.
For my taste, I think you’re processing is spot on. There’s a nice balance between the warmth in the trees and the cool tones in parts of the river.
The only thing that catches my eye is the white water exiting the frame. I’m much less bothered by the leaves in the LRC; they don’t draw the eye that much. Just not sure what to suggest on the LLC. At first I couldn’t see a viable crop without altering the gentle and broad view. I decided to pull it in and try something. My crop takes a little off both the left and bottom. Not sure I like losing the mossy rock, but it’s a compromise in losing the water exiting the LLC. But my crop still left a bit of the cascade in that corner that I then CA-cloned away. You can see where it’s slightly darker - that’s the CA clone result (I think works.)
I really like the wide view and flow of your original so I’m not sure this is an improvement. But an exercise in eliminating the white water in the corner.
I can see some version of this in print.
Lon
@Lon_Overacker, Thank you for the rework. Gives me a lot of constructive things to think about. I’d love to make it back to the Smokies soon and give these streams another look. I’m mainly a wildlife photographer so landscape photography offers me a new outlet of creativity, etc.
Allen, you should do landscape more often. Moving water is a fun exercise, as often you never really know how they turn out until the motion is frozen. Your shutter speed worked quite well here to allow fluid motion, but with enough detail remaining to avoid looking “silky,” something I personally prefer to avoid. As to the framing, I think @Lon_Overacker offers a good option, however I like inclusion of the leaves laying on the far right rock. As well as that second smaller rock far left I think that burning down the outflow at bottom left would work nicely too. To me shutter speed, aperture and exposure control are the key components for this genre, and you certainly have a fine composition worth more pursuit on your part. Just watch your footing!
While the original post is quite lovely I think @Lon_Overacker’s tweaks have elevated it another notch, Allen. I am enjoying the way that the moving water fans out around those rocks. You should try landscapes more often as this is wonderful. This is just a personal choice, but I might try to tone down some of the hot spots in the water as they look a little bright. I hope you can make it back to the Smokies.
Allen, Bradley Fork Trail? I think I saw this scene this past week-end, a bit cloudier and rainy. I’m a stream gut and am always looking for interesting view-points. No real comment but a couple of questions for you and the experts. Why not zoom in a bit more to lose the LLC rock and rapid? I would think focusing more on the central rocks might draw us further into the scene. In the same vein, if you moved a bit to the right and put those rocks to the left-center, put the falls more to the center, would that not frame up the stream, fast water and draw us into the scene? Thanks and enjoy it out there. I try to ge to the smokys at least once a month.
@mike6, this was taken on the Middle Prong near Tremont. I took this a few years ago so may not remember all the details but I do remember the road being close on the right side which may have affected my composition choices not wanting to bring the road in the scene on the right but keeping the right framing. Plus if I remember correctly access to the stream at certain points was rather dicey. I think Lon’s rework addresses your point about the LLC.
This looks great, Allen! There is a lot of compositional energy from the water flow in the stream. Your processing looks great to my eye. One minor nit is the slightly out of focus leaves in the lower right hand corner. Not too big of a deal, but they do kind of catch my eye a bit. I know from experience that it can be hard to avoid that, but it is something to look for when you are composing the scene in the field. 
As a side note I really enjoy that part of the park. I live in Nashville and try to get out there a few times a year. I was just out there in June.
