A shot of Coire Eas na Caillich (‘Scout Pool’) bursting after heavy rainfall. This is an off the beaten track location in the Trossachs region of the highlands of Scotland.
Specific Feedback Requested
All feedback welcome, particularly regarding composition and whether the image ‘works’.
Technical Details
Is this a composite: No
f/8 (focus stack)
24.5mm
1/4 sec
It took me a while to find a composition here. I eventually settled on this one, with the prominent angled blade of rock leading the eye to the main flow of the river and waterfall in the background.
The portrait orientation was chosen to reduce distracting elements although I felt this was a compromise in that it results in the water flowing quite abruptly out of the left side of the frame. That said, I tried to retain the water flowing through the bottom of the frame to offset this negative (in my view).
The shutter speed was my other main consideration and I settled on this which I thought portrayed the fast movement in the water whilst retaining texture.
Finally, in processing I have tried to lead the eye by bringing out contrast in the most centrally located rocks. I have also tried to bring out the background details on the left (the hanging tree) whilst drawing the eye away from the less interesting right side.
There is much to like about this image. It’s fairly complex and frankly that’s what makes it interesting in my opinion. As you say, it’s been carefully composed to start in the fg and leads you to where the water enters the picture.
There is one thing I disagree about. The point of focus, the angular rock, I find to be at odds in the image with the rest of the scene and is actually detracts from it. The reason is because everything is round with curves and arcs in the area of the water while it has a sharp angular shape
Hi Brian! Welcome to NPN! I really love this image. I like the low down looking up towards the falls perspective. I really love all the focus on the rocks and nice movement in the water. I think it’s great as is. Beautiful place, beautifully composed!
Thank you for your feedback Igor. That is very interesting and not something I had considered. I do see what you mean and agree that the angular rock is perhaps overly dominant. I do remember at the time having trouble resolving all of the elements together in large part due to the angled rock overlapping with the rocks behind.
An interesting and useful critique - precisely what I was after so thank you.
Welcome to NPN Brian this is a great first post !!! I look forward to seeing more of your work, and don’t be shy about contributing your comments on posts made by other folks, it’s a great way to meet members of our community.
It’s good to see someone taking such a thoughtful approach to their craft, as detailed in your image description. You obviously paid a lot of attention to composition here. It is a complex image, but you have done a good job of organizing it and have made it work well. And your processing looks spot on to me as well.
I do not have a problem with how the water flows out of the image to the left. Normally I would prefer not to see it leave mid-frame like that. But I think that flow works okay for me here because it is one of a series of repeating diagonal water flows as you move down the image. It’s unusual to see diagonal flows like that in waterfall images, but I think it works well here. I also think the abrupt out flow to the left is not a problem because the rock that Igor mentioned is pointing straight at the waterfall, making a strong connection to the falls. Normally the flow of water makes the foreground to background connection in vertical waterfall images, but I think the diagonal rock serves that purpose here. I do see Igor’s point about its shape not being fully harmonious with other shapes in the image, but for me that rock serves another purpose too.
This is a very well presented image, so any suggestions that I’d have are either subtle or subjective, so take them with a grain of salt. I would clone away the small bright patch of sky above the falls, it’s a minor hotspot that competes slightly with the falls ( a real nitpick, I know). And a couple of other things to consider. I also think this image looks good flipped horizontal, and it has the advantage of the diagonal rock “flowing” from left to right, and the water exits on the right. Not necessarily better, just food for thought. And second, this image would look great converted to B&W, even though it also works well in color. Why not have both ?
Welcome aboard, Brian. Real nice first image. The composition and processing both work well for me, but I do agree with @Ed_McGuirk about cloning out the sky. Love the shimmer on the big foreground rock. No other suggestions here. Very well done.
I appreciate the detailed feedback on the composition Ed. Definitely some food for thought and something I can take forward into my process in future.
I’ve had a go at a small crop from the top and pulling down the highlights in the remaining small section of sky, which definitely makes a small but worthwhile improvement. I’ve also slightly reduced the brightness of the central foreground rock and slightly increased the brightness of the falls with the intention of drawing the eye through more/ stopping it hanging up on the foreground too much. Perhaps too subtle to make a noticeable difference.
I don’t have much experience in black and white but I’ll perhaps give it a try - certainly no harm as you suggest.
Welcome to NPN, Brian!
An interesting first post. I like it a lot. I think your shutter speed is perfect for this image. This is always a matter of taste; I don’t like the milky look of very long exposures, that take away the dynamics of the water in my opinion. This one shows the flow without smoothing the water too much.
I find the small patch of sky not really distracting, but I agree with @Ed_McGuirk that it could be darkened a bit. Your small crop has more or less the same effect.
Thanks Han. I feel the same way about the shutter speed and the goal here was definitely to retain texture and convey motion so as to make the water as much a subject as the rocks. If anything, I may have gone a hair faster if redoing it.
