The photographer is looking for generalized feedback about the aesthetic and technical qualities of their image.
Description
My girlfriend and I visited Zion National Park for the first time recently! We had a great time and I captured this in the Virgin River around sunset. I loved the golden sidelight on Watchman (the peak in the background) and the S curve of the river. I took a lot more shots here that day and the next, but this was the first and my favorite.
Specific Feedback
Composition: How can I do better with wide angle composition? Should I be lower? Is the foreground interesting enough? In theory I was planning to do a focus stack but I felt that the peak was sharp enough
Style: I’m going for a softer and refined style that maintains depth and drama – how did I do? Is it oversaturated? I made a custom vignette with masks – should I intensify it? Tone it down? What else can I do to achieve the style I described?
Anything else that you notice or would suggest?
Technical Details
Camera: Sony a6600
Lens: Sigma 18-50 @ 18.7mm
Settings: 1/25s, f/5.6, ISO 250
Single exposure
Critique Template
Use of the template is optional, but it can help spark ideas.
That’s a great shot. I think you’ve got the water movement just right but perhaps ~f11 would have given you a much better DoF.
How can I do better with wide angle composition? That’s personal taste and dependent on what you’re trying to achieve. Should I be lower? As above. Is the foreground interesting enough? I think so. The rocks and water movement give you that. That said, I think the mid ground is a bit messy and detracts from the image. Style: I’m going for a softer and refined style that maintains depth and drama – how did I do? Is it oversaturated? I made a custom vignette with masks – should I intensify it? Tone it down? What else can I do to achieve the style I described? Again its personal taste but you could do some selective editing for contrast, light, dark to get some more drama into the scene.
Anything else that you notice or would suggest? Maybe a CPL to cut down on the reflections in the water but that would be problematic at 18mm.
Thanks Mark! I should experiment with smaller apertures. Typically I’m staying around 5.6 as it’s the sharpest for this lens but maybe f11 would be OK. Agreed about the midground.
I already did quite a bit of selective editing but I’ll play around with intensifying it. Thanks for sharing your thoughts!
Hi Maatthew,
The light on The Watchman; as well as the aspens; is quite lovely and makes for a wonderful backdrop to the river. The clouds in the sky are another great element in the scene. For my tastes you got down low enough, but you could always experiment next time and see which you like best when you get it back on the computer. IMO it is definitely not oversaturated. I do have a couple of suggestions; first I would crop a little from the FG as it appears a little soft although that could be just water movement. The second suggestion is to tone down the glare a little bit on the water. Here is a repost with what I was thinking. I made a crop from the bottom and used auto tone to get rid of some of the glare on the water. Just my opinon of course.
Ed, thanks for your feedback! A friend also suggested cropping it from the bottom (and left a bit) and I think that’s good advice. I’ll play around with the glare on the water, thanks for pointing it out!
A very nice scene. I agree with the earlier comments and I like the version of @Ed_Lowe .
The peak is definitely sharp enough, but a focus stack would have given you a sharp FG as well. Can be beneficial, even with f/11. Especially when the FG is very close to your feet.
I like your choice of SS, with 1/25s there is enough motion in the water without rendering it too milky. I would not intensify the vignette.
Thanks Han! Unfortunately like a dummy I didn’t have my tripod so I was hand-holding (!) these shots but agree about the focus stack idea, and really I think that would be my preference to avoid diffraction. Appreciate the feedback
Beautiful colors and you were lucky to get a good sky. I find the upper image more interesting. The lowest 1/4 takes away from the upper area. I would consider a crop. Getting lower would not improve in my opinion. A lens that’s not as wide would be good.
I’m not able to view this on the calibrated monitor currently Matthew, but wanted to jump in and say how much I enjoy this! I love a grand vista, and the Watchman is an icon for good reason. The way that you’ve stacked the blue river, the yellow trees, the Watchman, and the lovely sky works oh so well! The repost looks very good, but I’ll try to catch up with this once back on the better monitor too.
Having photographed Zion a couple dozen times and being very familiar with it, it is refreshing to see a unique perspective from this location. Your composition is quite nice and I do agree that a crop from the bottom does make an already nice image, even nicer. Processing looks good, too. I agree with @Mark_Orchard that a smaller aperture is useful to ensure sharp DoF from front to back but - at least at this smaller size - your image does look sharp. This is personal preference but I would like to have seen the water a little smoother from a longer shutter speed. Also, the cottonwood tree in the URH corner keeps dragging my eye away from the rest of the scene and out of the frame. All in all, this is a lovely image - especially for your first time to Zion!
@Bret_Edge, thank you for the thoughtful comments! I enjoyed exploring the bank of the river to find compositions. It’s amazing that you live nearby and can go so often. I’m hoping to come back sometime next spring or summer. I was looking at The Photographer’s Ephemeris and May through July look like they might offer a better sun angle for sunset photos with the light filtering through the canyon.
Like others, I enjoyed your composition, and appreciate the effort to get low over the river. The result of your field work and processing is a winner.
I played with the image before reading others’ comments and came up with similar thoughts. I first tried a de-haze (TK9), and then bottom crop, and then colored some of the brighter/whiter rocks. (The de-haze increased saturation, which might not be the direction that satisfies you.)
