Stillness and Motion

Hi all. I hope isolation is treating you well. I took this image just before the UK was locked down so i thought I’d process it and get your thoughts.

Composition wise, I really liked this still puddle that reflected the trees above/behind me which led nicely into a whirlpool at the edge of the river. I slowed the shutter speed down to try and grab some nice motion in the water which is a bit of a contrast to the still puddle. The eye is then led up the river and to the bridge.

Processing wise I took multiple exposures for focus stacking and water motion. I then did a bit of colour and tonal work to make the scene more harmonious and added an Orton effect along with a vignette and some light bleed around the bridge.

All comments gratefully received.

Many thanks
Chris

Chris, I like the composition you chose, however, I must admit the pool reflection in the foreground confused me just a bit at first. Also like how you have managed the colors; nice and cool to echo the scene. Your treatment of the water works really well for me. Great photo.

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Hi @Chris_Mitchell

Lock down is striking us all but gladly, so far, everything is going just fine.
That composition is very well spotted, it creates and S shape from the bridge to that puddle. I would push the composition a bit down to show a bit more of the bridge, but maybe you hidden it for some major reason.
Also the colour tones of the puddle are a bit of for me, a bit magenta I think.
Other than that I like the image, the greens are lush and (for what I saw) the blending is very well made.
Thank you for sharing,
Cheers

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This is interesting. You’ve got both the puddle with reflections and the bridge further up. My critique of the composition is that you’ve got too much going on here. Both the top and bottom half make fine compositions in their own right. I don’t think the 2 halves work well together. But each half is a really good image. That’s just my opinion.

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Chris,
This image really grabbed my attention. and like @linda_mellor I was a bit confused with the reflection in the pool. It is a very creative and interesting scene, and I think it is processed very well. For me I think the initial confusion led me to the same conclusion as @Igor_Doncov, and think there are two very fine halves to the image, however the sum of the parts are not greater than the whole in this case. I am very interested to see what others will offer.

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Thanks everyone. After reviewing it I think I’ll revisit the area once we’re allowed to roam free again. Next time I’ll try and get further down towards the whirlpool and start the composition from there.

This looks like a very interesting spot, I really like old stone bridges, they look so charming! The puddle is a great find, but I agree with Igor and Alan that it splits to composition a bit too much as it is. I think starting at the whirlpool sounds like a great idea, it will make a great foreground. I expect you have not included more of the bridge due to a bright colorless sky above it? Maybe visit with softer light, or a sunset/sunrise? Soft orange light would fit the colors well here. Or what about the other side of the water, or the other side of the bridge?
You have uploaded a nice large file that lets me zoom in and by doing that I notice that you have sharpness jumps across the frame due to the focus-stacking. I don’t know what settings you used for the focus stacks, but I think you would not need more than 3 or max 4 shots for this one? The direct foreground is soft, as is some of the midground (especially the beautiful mosses on the right), and the upper edge of the image. I would soften the edge in the mask from the water to the bump in the rock just below the whirlpool a bit, it looks much sharper now than the rest of that edge.

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The puddle at the bottom of the image is very jarring. It breaks the image in half for me, and it feels like you have stacked two separate photos on top of each other. One of a rock with a puddle, another with a stream and a bridge. Hard to tell what the main subject is here and a lot of competition between them.