Blurred Stream

[Mr. Clipit]

Ok, another shot in my ongoing nature photography quest. I used a polarizer to cut the glare in the water and to act as a makeshift ND filter so that I could use a longer exposure time - this was 1/5 second (handheld, of course), F/8.0, 2x zoom. The edit is a long way from the original - I cropped and rotated it a bit, along with major exposure changes. The last step was a bleach bypass preset in PS plugin Dfx, which ups the contrast in a weird way that I though suited the photo. I tried to put the focus on the flow of water as much as possible. I think that the crazy angles of the branches around the edges help to frame the shot to an extent, which I'm happy but not thrilled about. Oh, and do take a look at the original (only rotation applied), and just give me a thumbs up or down. Thanks! (oh and please don't be afraid to comment, just let me know real quick if it suits you or not)

[windrider86]

The water itself works for me but the ice is overexposed

[tomw]

I really have to try this with my new cir. polarizer

Ok, so my thoughts:
Too much contrast, especially from the original. From the orig, you could either make it brighter and heavenly, or dark like you did...but I think you did a little too much.

I also agreewith windrider86...the ice is confusing my eye. Try to crop it out, along with a little bit of the branches. I understand your idea of the framing, but the branches are too random and small to even be seen. I would just play around with the crops and hope for the best.

Any questions just ask!
-tomw

[steevdavis62]

Very contrasty, and the ice is over exposed slighty... but overall, the idea is great

[morfasie]

Well done excellent shot

[Mr. Clipit]

I cropped it in tighter and went for the more angelic look, plus i clone stamped out an irritating branch. improved?

[Sandie]

This version is more interesting to me. I would still like to see a bit more detail in the ice, but the crop, flip and brightening(?) really make it a much stronger image.

[tomw]

Hm. This is actually really hard for me to decide. I see your work to improve, but I think your camera's quality got in the way. I can see some more noise and definantly some motion blur (Motion blur is evident in every photograph, even at > 1/150!).

Also, not sure with the brightness. Hard to tell.

One thing I can say is that I don't see where the water is coming from...if you make the crop so you just cut the first version in half, it might work as well.

In the end, it is your photograph...express what you feel!

[Mr. Clipit]

Upped the sharpness ('clarity' as Lightroom calls it) along with minor exposure adjustments. I think this removes some of the angelic feel of the photo, but I think I like this one better. Am I the only one?

[Sandie]

I like it better. The ice has a lot more detail and the water has a lot of movement.