Critique Style Requested: Standard
The photographer is looking for generalized feedback about the aesthetic and technical qualities of their image.
The foreground attracted me to this scene.
Is the top 1/3 too chaotic? General composition and processing
24mm f/11 1/3 sec iso 100
Hey Mario! What an interesting foreground. That bottom left section makes me think of “The Thing”! I think you’ve done a great job on the contrast, and I really like the shutter speed on the water. There may be some very minor clipping in the main cascade but that could be refined pretty easily. The image overall has a strong left to right flow to it, the boxy nature of the crop seems to make it feel a bit claustrophobic for me. I cropped down to a 2x3 on a version I messed with I’ll post below. In my mind it retains the interest in the bottom left corner. I also did a bit of a color correction. Overall it felt a bit warm and magenta to me. I wouldn’t say I find the background too cluttered. It is a busy image overall in the sense that it has a lot of textures. I like how the arcing tree on the left frames the cascade.
David Thanks. @David_Wallace . The original was a more comprehensive image of the scene. I like the tweaks you did. Thanks for the review.
HI Mario,
I can see why the FG caught your attention!
It is unusual and very interesting… and… it looks dangerously slippery 
I can certainly see David’s point from a compositional perspective if the stream is the main focal point but as you say, the FG is your main interest and this shows that very well in my opinion. 
Cropping down from the top to just above the bent saplings that overhang the stream could work but only if you want to try a different crop.
But to me, the square crop works well as presented!
I see that you used 1/3 second shutter speed and the water looks really smooth (which is very nice BTW), this makes me think that the water is fast moving, did you happen to try any faster shutter speeds like 1/8s or faster just to see what other textures you could get out of the water? Just a thought really.
I try to remember to try several different shutter speeds for smooth water but I don’t always succeed at remembering 
Nicely done!
My initial reaction is that I hope you have more views than just this one. Were you there for a while or did you only have time for a grab shot? It has potential, but for me lacks focus even with the stream dead center. If the foreground is what did it for you, it isn’t really showing in this photo - the woods are stealing too much attention.
Since I love streams and brooks, too, I often find it difficult to show exactly why they are magical and intriguing. The rock is is definitely the star here and so I wonder if you got low and close for drama. Or high up with just the rock and water to contrast their textures. So much to explore and experiment with besides this view. Just now I’m attracted to that bendy tree on the left and wonder if something could be done to incorporate it more fully. A neat area, but I don’t see it explored or exploited well in this one, Mario.
I love forest scenes and moving water. And I love cool rocks, too, and so I overall like the elements in this scene, yet feel that it was not explored enough to bring out the element that grabbed your attention – the rocks in FG – as much as it could. There seems to be several photographs within this scene that could be worthy, as Kristin mentions, and hopefully you explored it more? Even the crop that David did still puts that strong stream line through the middle of the two areas - forest and rocks - even though an oblique line. I would love to see a more intimate scene that related the foreground to the moving water more. Or a close approach to the foreground rocks to emphasize those more.
Thank you @Merv @Kris_Smith @brenda_tharp @David_Wallace for your feedback. After reading these comments I plan on going back to that spot to explore it better. I like the idea of lower on the FG but wonder how much stream I will lose. Will give it a shot
I look forward to seeing what you come up with. We just got another 6 or 8 inches of snow here and rain for the next couple days so this kind of exploring is next on my list! So much fun.
I found another image of the same scene and madt it a more intimate image highlighting the FG juxtaposed to the stream. I think this works better. Thoughts ? @brenda_tharp @David_Wallace @Kris_Smith @Merv
That’s a start for sure. Those rocks are really interesting. If you could get some sidelight on them either really early or late in the day, the texture would come through strongly. I like the diagonal of the water, but am not in love with the far edge and would see if I could get a composition without it. Looks pretty slippery so stay shiny side up!
