The photographer is looking for generalized feedback about the aesthetic and technical qualities of their image.
Description
Whangarei falls consists of 3 water cascades over a 25m cliff into a U shaped basin. There were plenty of places for standard waterfall type photos and it was fairly ho-hum until I went into a corner where the sunlight played on the leaves above my head and the waterfall became background. I tried a few different compositions and orientations, but this one seems to stick in my head. I used a fairly fast (for waterfalls) exposure so the water had texture, but not broken into droplets.
Specific Feedback
I have cleaned up some leaves at the edges and removed a very small area of sky top lhs. I wonder if the cleanup is enough and if the background is too dark
Technical Details
Canon 90D (crop sensor), 3 stop ND filter, 1/20 second, ISO 100, F14, Sigma 17 to 70mm at 63mm.
Critique Template
Use of the template is optional, but it can help spark ideas.
Hi Rob, the backlighting on the leaves is really magical in this image. The falls sound amazing!
The background doesn’t look too dark to me. However, the branch leading out of frame in the ULC is distracting for me. I wonder if you could crop it to include only the lower branches that form an implied diagonal from lower left to upper right.
Hi Rob,
This is wonderful and not your typical waterfall image. The light on the leaves is flat out gorgeous and your chosen SS works well as you have detail in the water as you already mentioned. I do agree with @Matthew_Chatham suggestion about the little branch in the ULC. I hope you do not mind, but I did a real quick rework on that and here is what I came up with. Beautiful image!
I like the simplicity of this image and the nice vibrant greens of the backlit leaves. I also really like what @Ed_Lowe did with that branch in the upper left – it really helps tidy up the image. Another thing I would consider (my personal taste) would be to crop out a just a little bit of the “empty” bottom.
@Tom_Nevesely@Ed_Lowe@Matthew_Chatham
Thank you all. Ed, your rework is good, especially since I envisaged removing the leaves and that branch, not just the branch itself. I hope to try that later today
I have played at length and removed the twig as suggested. I also removed a leaf and twig some 1/4 from the top RHS and altered the crop from 6 by 4 to 5 by 7. I am not sure about the crop though as I seem to loose a bit of the waterfall height sensation.
I’ve been working on a photo from earlier this year that has a similar theme where the waterfall is the backdrop, so I really appreciate this Rob; it’s inspirational. I love the edit you did. The upper left corner looks cleaner, and since for me the star of the show is the tree (especially the light on the leaves) I don’t mind at all that the waterfall is shorter. Those couple of spiderwebs are a nice Easter egg at full-size.
