The photographer is looking for generalized feedback about the aesthetic and technical qualities of their image.
Description
This photograph was taken recently in an isolated part of Tasmania, where I had to crossed the river in this photo, to take this photo. I was interested by the deep tea colored tones of the river and the patterns formed by the bubbles flowing along the surface, which I used a long exposure to accentuate. When photographing this scene, I wanted to compose an image such that the interesting tones and texture of the river could be explored in contrast with the lush plants and textures of the rainforest on the riverbank.
Specific Feedback
I would appreciate all feedback, including on the composition. Does the division with the river and the rainforest work to create an interesting image, or do the differences between forest and river prove too distracting? Would the image work better with a different crop and what edits could enhance the images’ representation of river and forest?
First: lovely colors and great image quality. I guess I can see why you were tempted to take this shot. The red color of the stream is amazing!
Composition-wise I am struggling a bit. There’s nothing that pulls my eye in any direction, no main object, no light source.
Also, there are many distracting details along the shoreline. Maybe a more close-up shot with ivy and water only and less surrounding would have brought out the contrasting colors better, I don’t know …
This is lovely. The contrast of the orange-brown water with the greens of the forest is striking. I love how you framed the water, with that shallower spot of more color framed by the moving streaks.
I think a few targeted adjustments would bring more emphasis to the water and equalize it’s prominence in the frame with the vegetation. There are a couple light areas of vegetation near the top of the frame that draw my eye away from the water, as well as that light brown rock(?) frame right.
I took a crack at it to show what I’m thinking. I did all the adjustments in ACR, using various masks that adjusted exposure/lights/darks and some saturation.
I also cropped to 16:9 to equalize the visual weight of the vegetation vs. the water. The vegetation, being so textured and green, carries more weight in the frame than the water (IMO). Here’s the result:
Hi Markus, thank you for your feedback! I understand your thoughts on the composition, and I would be interested to hear what you think about this image from the same location, where the patterns in the water are more pronounced.
Hi Bonnie, thank you for the detailed feedback! I like what you have done with the exposure and your point about the vegetation carrying more weight is very true. The 16:9 crop works great for this. I also agree with your point about the rock at the right of the frame and I will experiment a bit with darkening it some more to reduce its visual impact.
Hi Keenan,
I made a quick and rough version of your image where I tried to focus on what I personally see as the focus point in the image: the swirl and the mirroring ivy. I blurred and darkened what seems distracting to me.
Naturally, this is just my personal view and cannot reflect the ideas or feelings you had on location. But maybe you can take something away.
Greetings, Markus
Hi Markus, thank you for taking the time to review the image. I quite like the direction you chose to go with your edits, especially darkening the bottom left corner and lightening the ferns. I think I will experiment with edits similar to the ones you proposed as they do help focus the swirls and the plants a lot better. Thank you again
My favorite part of this image is the light. I also like very much the colors and how they complement one another. The composition is pretty standard. The bubble streaks are the only thing that’s not working for me. I find them confusing.
Hi Igor, thank you for your feedback! My intention with this image was to use the bubble streaks to lead into the image, although I see how they can be confusing. I might revisit some of the other images I took from this location where I did not use a long exposure for the bubble streaks and see how they compare to this one in terms of the light and colors.
