The photographer is looking for generalized feedback about the aesthetic and technical qualities of their image.
Description
Another image from our trip to Yosemite. This was taken on the day we arrived, before the fog and rain set in.
Specific Feedback
I wanted to place the falls a bit off center to keep it from being too much of an icon shot. I also used a fat shutter speed to freeze the water and show its power. Does it all come together for you? All comments welcome.
Technical Details
Z8, 24-200 @65mm, f/6, 1.1250 sec, ISO 360, tripod
It is pretty hard to take a photo of Yosemite Falls and it not be iconic. Nonetheless, you did well with your photo of it. I like that it is not centered, that definitely helped. Good choice with the shutter speed, as the falls are small as an element in the frame, so having detail in the falls helps garner more attention to the falls. I also love the lighting you had as it is just about perfect for forest photography. The glow on the two smaller trees that sort of frame the falls appear to have a 3D quality to them that makes them appear to jump out of the screen. Exposure, color balance and saturation are wonderful. Nicely done.
Classicly beautiful! Agree with both you and Youssef, that putting the falls slightly off-center and utilizing the strength of the tall pine on the left really makes for a very pleasing, and somewhat unique composition.
This relates directly to our comments on Jayâs recent Landscape post about how best to photography in dreary, overcast light. Well⌠you capture images like this! The lack of direct light means you can have white waterfalls, and dark forest, all exposed beautifully in one frame. Dynamic range? meh. Contrast, exposure, saturation, WB, all look great! Great choice and thought about shutter speed to - great job retaining texture and detail in the falls themselves.
Putting on my nitpicking hat, my only suggestion is to clone or crop the very top to eliminate that bright area on the top edge. I thought for a second it was lettering, but I donât think so. Definitely an eye magnet. Easy fix
Beautifully seen and captured Steve. But hey, I guess you were just âpracticingâ (inside joke folks!)
This has a very nice composition. I remember this scene along the path to the falls. The trees nicely frame the falls and the frame looks casual rather than intended. My only suggestion is that the greens on the far left are drawing attention away from the falls due to their saturation. I would make a slight adjustment. The long aspect ratio works really well for this subject.
Even if these falls are among the most pictured in the world, âpracticingâ helps to make a new image of them and a striking one. Take away lesson: it helps to look not only at the path when climbing to the fallsâ top.
My only (insignificant) question is about the title: doesnât a creative view deserve a creative title as well?
Nice work, Xavier
Well done, Steve! I have observed the falls many times in the spring over the last forty years and the amount of water is less than in some years. This is most likely due to the reduced snowpack and its water content this past winter.
Anywho, this is a very nice take on the falls. The soft light and mist from the falling water adds greatly to the appeal. I agree with @Lon_Overacker regarding that bright spot at the top edge. Rather than a crop, it would be easy to clone out. The processing looks very good to me.
-P
Lon, Igor and Preston, I followed your suggestions and placed a revision at the top. In this I reduced the slightly saturation in the far left tree and cloned out the bright spot on the top. Thanks for the suggestions!
Iâm back with another comment. I must say that the light levels in the original, along with the overall saturation gave the photo a sense of overcast moody light, which I like much more than the brighter revision. Perhaps its just me, but the darker tones had more emotion than the lighter tones in the revision. If @Igor_Doncovâs suggestion drove that change, then I would limit it to what he suggested, just the darker saturated greens in the upper left of the left edge. But those greens did not distract my eye at all from the falls nor the two trees that frame it. In fact my comment about those two trees appearing almost 3D, seem to have been lost in the revision. Proper contrast does much more than just enhance colors, it gives a photo real depth.
Right. I didnât expect it to go in that direction. Here are the mods I made but did not post. I prefer a cooler approach but decided that was just personal taste and would not appeal to most people.
This brings up something I had been ruminating over. How valuable are verbal suggestions? I often get suggestions that I know the person critiquing would not have made if they had actually seen what they are suggesting. Changes are not obvious when you just look at an image. In addition, words donât convey fully what the author intends to say. Thatâs because there are no words in any language that can describe every color. The same with tones. Crop suggestions, on the other hand, can be accurately conveyed in words. As a result the author of the image is really guessing to some extent what is being suggested. I also feel that a critique with displayed modifications should generate more interest and result in a more involved discussions. What say you @David_Kingham? Would that make NPN better?
