Dynamic?

xfloggingkylex · May 16, 2007

I took a trip with my girlfriend to Cunningham Falls in Maryland Tuesday for some photos and hiking/climbing the waterfall, and just an overall relaxing day to mark the first day out of school. Anyways there were a few people there so I was mostly taking shots and just moving along to continue climbing with my girlfriend. Anyways, this shot was the one that I actually took the time to set up and frame and such, and as it turns out is also my favorite of the day (coincidence? I dont think so).

My question is about the composition and how dynamic the picture feels. Is it boring (Max, this one is for you particularly)? I know the colors and everything are bland, I was using the kit lens because it is my widest lens, and I had it down to f/22 with my polarizer on to get the water blur I wanted, knowing I would be sacrificing some quality.

What do you think?

Alpha · May 16, 2007

Well, it is a pretty straight forward waterfall shot. But that's beside the point in this case. I think the problem with the composition is that there's so much rock in the top-left portion of the frame that it distracts from the actual subject.

xfloggingkylex · May 16, 2007

MaxBloom said:
Well, it is a pretty straight forward waterfall shot. But that's beside the point in this case. I think the problem with the composition is that there's so much rock in the top-left portion of the frame that it distracts from the actual subject.

possible to save with a crop? Or just one of those "learn from your mistakes" type deals that I can use next time I'm there?

Alpha · May 16, 2007

TBH I think it may be a learn from mistake kinda thing. I mean you could try to crop out some of the rock at top-left, but you'd also cut out half the waterfall unless you rotate the image counter-clockwise and then crop.

xfloggingkylex · May 16, 2007

MaxBloom said:
TBH I think it may be a learn from mistake kinda thing. I mean you could try to crop out some of the rock at top-left, but you'd also cut out half the waterfall unless you rotate the image counter-clockwise and then crop.

yeah I just messed around with it a bit and all the crops take out too much water to be worth while. Learn from your mistakes (LFYM) it is. Thanks for the help Max. Though I'm not sure if I could fix it on location simply because of where I was, unless I learn to fly (and I'd have to learn to be real steady to avoid camera shake).

This picture is of the same location to give an idea of where I was. For the first shot I posted, I was standing at the top right hand corner of this picture (actually you cant see where I was standing because it is just slightly outside of the picture), and as you can see I dont have much room to move over and try to eliminate the rocks.

abraxas · May 17, 2007

You still have a shot in the first one but it'd be a major crop.

I bumped the saturation and contrast a bit too.

The water don't look that raging or deep though. Why is position a problem?

fightheheathens · May 17, 2007

hmmm....i think it's more a lighting problem here. It lacks shaddows and thus has no depth to it. also because the rock is grey and the blurred water is greyish... it just lacks any punch

Kristen6877 · May 17, 2007

I'm still trying to perfect this type of shot. I think you did pretty well, but I think I like the 2nd one better.

Alpha · May 17, 2007

Shutter speed is very important in these kinds of shots...precision is key. A lot of people think that they should just slow down the shutter as much as possible. But I ALWAYS bracket these shots because you never know how fast your water is moving. You can still miss the desired effect by shooting too slowly. Then it just looks like milk.

mmphoto · May 17, 2007

on the contrary, i think the original, with the rocks towering on the left give it more stature than the cropped version. and from first glance it didn't seem totally unbalanced to me... but what do i know... maybe its a bit darker towards the upper left corner but i still like it as it is. it has a power to it that the cropped one doesn't.

xfloggingkylex · May 17, 2007

Thanks for all the input everyone. I was trying to get the water smooth looking without that "milk" look that Max was talking about (not that I dont like that effect, just didnt want it for this shot).

Abraxas, I like what you've done as far as the saturation and contrast bump, but I miss seeing the bottom of the fall, because that is my favorite part of the picture.

fighttheheathens, as I mentioned in the first post this was shot at f/20 on the kit lens, simply because I couldn't get the shutter slower without using the aperture (no ND filter). As a result I knew from the beginning that picture would lack the sort of punch you could get from shooting at f/11, because fully stopped down tends to ruin colors. Also I was working with available light. Maybe when I'm up there next time I'll see if I cant get a shot when the sun is facing the rock face. Thanks.

Kristen, thank you for the kind words. I do like the second shot, it is somewhat framed by the rocks and all around looks ok. I just like the flow of the first picture starting in the corner and working its way down to the bottom center. Again I was trying to get a nice framing setup on this one.

Max, you think it's too slow?

mmphoto, thank you for the kind words. If it didn't look off to you than it must not be bad, but of course theres always room to improve.

fightheheathens · May 17, 2007

i realize that you were working with available light and such, but i was commenting that i thought it was more to do with the actual conditions and PP work couldnt really save it that much. It sucks to see a good shot but you just cant get it because of lighting. It also sucks to be limited by equiptment. I usually have the advantage of a ND8 and polarizer which cuts into shutter time like a hot knife into butter

xfloggingkylex · May 19, 2007

fightheheathens said:
i realize that you were working with available light and such, but i was commenting that i thought it was more to do with the actual conditions and PP work couldnt really save it that much. It sucks to see a good shot but you just cant get it because of lighting. It also sucks to be limited by equiptment. I usually have the advantage of a ND8 and polarizer which cuts into shutter time like a hot knife into butter

only PP is a very slight levels boost. I need to pick up an ND8. What are you using?