I took this during a break while kayaking down the Loxahatchee River. I used a circular polarizer and a .6 graduated neutral density filter to reduce the exposure of the sky through the trees and to enable the use of a slower shutter speed than I would have been able to use. Post processing was levels, shadow/highlight tool and history brush.
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Place: 115 out of 615 Avg (all users): 6.1087 Avg (commenters): 7.2000 Avg (participants): 6.0647 Avg (non-participants): 6.2444 Views since voting: 978 Views during voting: 254 Votes: 184 Comments: 13 Favorites: 0
This is a very nice capture of a beautiful place, I didn’t get a chance to vote on this in the challenge, so it’s great to be able to take a closer look at it now.
Let’s get right to the details!
Composition:
The first thing I notice here is the implied horizon line is not dead center in the frame. It gives us a chance to enjoy the smooth water feel that your long exposure gives.
I’m not particularly wild about the plant and log on the left. To my eye it grabs my attention and leads my eye right out of the frame. Since it is the main object in the water section (water being all dark and desaturated, and the plant being light and very saturated) it draws my eye right to the plant, then up and out on the log.
The human eye tends to be drawn to the area of high contrast in an image. In moving pictures this might be the area on screen with movement, in still photography it’s the highest level of sat/desat, tonal contrast, etc.
Your use of the grad ND filter took that high contrast away from the sky behind the trees and left it for the plant in the river.
Lighting:
I’m very impressed with what you did with the lighting. Use of the ND filter to balance this image in camera is a great insight on your part –
Use of the shadow/highlight to further balance this image and add some detail back into the shadows is well done. I would never have guessed you used it – so that kind of subtlety in post processing is to be commended too.
If it were a perfect world:
At least according to me, I’d love to see a subject. To me you have a perfect background for a number of applications. My first thought when I read your comments was “gee, I wish there was a kayaker in there”. Given your long exposure, that would have been difficult indeed.
However, I’m longing for an interesting stump, a small waterfall, anything in that lower righthand corner to draw my eye back into the photo and away from the plant/log that I’ve already discussed.
So I have great admiration for the technical side of this photo – your savvy in using an ND filter to even out your exposure is inspiring (gotta get some of those in MY bag so I can follow your example). The weakness is in the lack of major subject material to hold my eye and engage my interest.
I hope you find this helpful. I admire your work and look forward to seeing more of it int the future.
Feel free to contact me with any questions regarding this critique through the message system here on DPC.
When I first saw this shot I swore it was by cam. Little did I know it was my arch nemesis. Very nice work. I gave this a 7 in challenge. I liked the colors and details n the shot. Good feel overall.
7 - Nice image. Wish it were 720 - sure this size doesn't do this justice. Probably looks very good wall sized. Like the composition. A slight tweaking of the 'ranges' might have given this a little more depth/drama and even more of an edge, but perhaps difficult with likely resulting pp issues. Good detail and dof.
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