Top Knot

Critique Style Requested: Initial Reaction

Please share your immediate response to the image before reading the photographer’s intent (obscured text below) or other comments. The photographer seeks a genuinely unbiased first impression.

Questions to guide your feedback

I am wondering what your initial reaction is to this image.

Is it kinda’ cool, boring, something in between?

Other Information

Please leave your feedback before viewing the blurred information below, once you have replied, click to reveal the text and see if your assessment aligns with the photographer. Remember, this if for their benefit to learn what your unbiased reaction is.

Image Description

I found this boulder, with its ‘top knot’ plant while wandering along the Merced River one Autumn day.

It seemed a little odd to find a plant thriving in a crack on a big boulder in the middle of a river. It was that that made me make this image.

Technical Details

Nikon D7100
Nikkor 16-85mm @85mm
F 16 @ 1/5s, ISO 400.

PSCC 2024
TK’s Luminosity Masks
Neat Image NR

Specific Feedback

Any comments you may have will be appreciated but I am mainly interested in your reaction to this image.
-P


Critique Template

Use of the template is optional, but it can help spark ideas.

  • Vision and Purpose:
  • Conceptual:
  • Emotional Impact and Mood:
  • Composition:
  • Balance and Visual Weight:
  • Depth and Dimension:
  • Color:
  • Lighting:
  • Processing:
  • Technical:

Hi Preston,

It’s cool, because, at first glance, it looks so much like a whale

Russ

1 Like

Preston: Aptly titled, nicely seen and captured. The water action detracts just a little for me, A bit silkier would suit me better but this is good as is. I might also crop just a tiny bit from the top to make those tiny parts of the far bank go away. Good find and a solid capture. >=))>

1 Like

Preston,

My first impression is that I see a one-eyed alligator head with a tuft of hair.

1 Like

I immediately see an alligator winking at me with a questionable hair piece. LOL That foreground rock is by far my favorite part of the scene you’ve captured here. The composition is nicely weighted with some background rocks adding weight to the right side and ripples all around. I would have liked to have seen maybe slightly longer exposure to help the water flow a little better although I love “some” texture in my water movement shots so I’m on the edge about that one. If there is a way to remove the very top of the frame where the rocks are poking into the scene in the upper left that would take care of a very small nit but I otherwise have nothing I can add to help this image out.

Thanks for your comments, everyone!

@Bill_Fach and @David_Haynes. I agree about the SS and the texture of the water. The deciding factor to use the SS I did was that I wanted the plants to be sharp. Any slight breeze during a longer exposure would have blurred the plant.

David, I considered cropping the far shore a bit but would have lost the space above the large rock on the far right. I also thought about using content aware fill in PS but was uncertain if it would work here. Thanks for the thought.
-P