Waterfall Photo Critique

0ptics · May 9, 2013

Hello,

I was wondering what you guys thought about these pictures of a waterfall; I would like to post only one on my Flickr, but can't decide. Here are my thoughts of them...
1) I think out of the 4 this is the worse one, but thought I should post it to see your guys' opinion
2) Idk if I prefer the landscape or portrait; usually prefer portrait view, but I like how much of the forest it shows
3) I like how the hiker's pose; prefer this over #1
4) I like how your can seem the trees from bottom up, but don't want to shift the focus away from the waterfall

Any other comments/critiques about these photos (not as individuals) and my photography in general would be appreciated (eg. my composition, color/editting, extra tips on harsh lighting outdoor shots, etc.)

Thank you all!!
0ptics

Trever1t · May 9, 2013

Of these four images #4 is the strongest. Not because of the hiker but because the leading lines of the trees culminating at the top of the frame. That said the image needs some careful manipulation to bring up the shadows and enhance the overall range.

gregtallica · May 10, 2013

I'm with Trever1t. #1 is really the only one I find interesting. It's a cool shot.

baturn · May 10, 2013

All would have been better if you had stepped around that tree.

gregtallica · May 10, 2013

oh, and I'd crop the girls head out of #4.

0ptics · May 10, 2013

Trever1t said:
Of these four images #4 is the strongest. Not because of the hiker but because the leading lines of the trees culminating at the top of the frame. That said the image needs some careful manipulation to bring up the shadows and enhance the overall range.

Thanks Trever1t, ya I really wished I did a HDR or atleast brought my tripod so I could put my ND filter on. Is there a specific thing I should research to bring up the shadows? I'm not a pro at photoshop/LR, but is it called dodging? Cause most of the time I just use LR to do all my editing (I tried cranking up Fill Light, but too much noise appeared).

gregtallica said:
I'm with Trever1t. #1 is really the only one I find interesting. It's a cool shot.

Ok thanks gregtallica!! I'm assuming you mean #4?

baturn said:
All would have been better if you had stepped around that tree.

Yeah, but the trail was very narrow and elevated, plus it was pretty busy since everyone else wanted to snag a picture of the waterfall. I was in a really bad position and basically kneeling to get a decent shot lol

gregtallica said:
oh, and I'd crop the girls head out of #4.

Ha yeah noticed it when I was editing the photo :/...ty tho

hirejn · May 10, 2013

The tree cutting through the falls is always distracting, so none of the compositions can really work. It's almost as if you were going for a shot of the canopy and the falls just happened to be there, or at best you were going for two images in one, which is distracting. The negative space in the lower right doesn't add to or support any of the images, and before you think HDR, don't. You need shadows to tell a story, just not such a big block of them in this image. And it's a bright sunny day, making the light simply harsh and uninteresting. This is light we see every day. What I don't see here is an exploration of lenses. A telephoto could've helped you pick out elements of the scene to emphasize vs. trying to pull everything in. A cloudy day would've enabled you to get much softer water and more even light.

0ptics · May 10, 2013

hirejn said:
The tree cutting through the falls is always distracting, so none of the compositions can really work. It's almost as if you were going for a shot of the canopy and the falls just happened to be there, or at best you were going for two images in one, which is distracting. The negative space in the lower right doesn't add to or support any of the images, and before you think HDR, don't. You need shadows to tell a story, just not such a big block of them in this image. And it's a bright sunny day, making the light simply harsh and uninteresting. This is light we see every day. What I don't see here is an exploration of lenses. A telephoto could've helped you pick out elements of the scene to emphasize vs. trying to pull everything in. A cloudy day would've enabled you to get much softer water and more even light.

Thank you for your input, it was a very sunny day so I was expecting the trees to be almost like silhouettes which is unfortunate. Would you recommend another method other than HDR to get less of a contrast? Would a Polarizing filter or ND filter work? Also the trail I was on was extremely steep and narrow and very crowded. I agree, that tree blocking the waterfall is very distracting but I couldn't really do much to avoid it in my shot. I was using the Nikon 12-24mm and the only telephoto I have is the 55-200mm and if I used that, I would have gotten a terrible shot. In my opinion using my 55-200mm would have been way too much of a zoom and would only reveal a portion of the waterfall, thus I thought using a wide was a much better lens for this and allowed me to capture not only the waterfall but the environment around it.