Critique Style Requested: Standard
The photographer is looking for generalized feedback about the aesthetic and technical qualities of their image.
Description
This stretch of the river is located in a relatively small narrow steep-sided canyon. It was taken with my tripod positioned close to the edge of the canyon. I wanted more of a close-up small-scene composition that zeroed in on the freeze-frame “texture” of the water.
There is a bridge that goes over the river above these waves. And I actually considered walking onto the bridge right over these waves in order to capture a straight-down faux-drone-like image. But this alternate composition just did not appeal to me as much as this one, where the slight angle created a more pleasing perspective. [At least to my eyes.]
This small canyon is oriented north-south, and the sun had already set beyond the western side. Meaning this area was already in full shade. Which helped tremendously with reducing the overall contrast to a manageable level. A slight reduction in Lightroom’s highlights slider and increase in the shadows slider was all the post-processing required.
Specific Feedback
I went out of my way to find a portion where the white-water curved around a bend, adding a bit of extra dynamic tension to the already frothy surface.
On a related note, several times I’ve come across a compositional rule that states images of rivers should never be taken with the camera facing “downstream”. I have no idea why this rule exists. This image was taken with the camera facing downstream, and in my eyes it looks better than if it was taken pointing upstream.
I’m just curious to know what you think of the overall composition.
Technical Details
Full frame camera. Maxed out at the 400 mm end of my 100-400 mm lens. 1/400 sec @ f9.0. ISO 1600 (it was in the shade, not bright sunlight).
No crop whatsoever. [A rarity. Believe me!!]
