What’s Your Preference?

Solarian · #1 (**permalink**) 05-11-2010, 05:42 AM

I made a trip to Jeju Island in South Korea this past weekend, and I decided to read the tutorial here on shooting waterfalls as I know there are some good ones on that island.
This is one of the shots that I got that I'm particularly happy with. I'm a firm believer that there is always room for improvement though, so I'd like to get some feedback on it.
IMG_6936 on Flickr - Photo Sharing!

Thanks, and feel free to be harsh/honest with your critique. I'm fairly new to photography (less than a year), so I won't be offended.

amitkhanna84 · #2 (**permalink**) 05-11-2010, 06:57 AM

... so feel free to ignore me if doesn't make much sense

I really like the shot! If I were you:
1) I would have tried out other shutter speeds (I didn't see any other waterfall photo in your flickr steam's first page). This "silky falls" photo is kinda common - almost everyone goes for that look. I would have taken this as the safe shot and then tried a really fast shutter speed to freeze the water still (I am thinking close to 1/400s - you might need to crank up the ISO for that). Also, varying the shutter speed between 1/10s to 5 sec would give you different kind of silkiness. I see that you were in Av; I would do this in the shutter priority mode (Tv).

2) Try other compositions - like the 1x1; just remove the greenery on the right hand side - I think it isn't adding much to this photo. I don't know if you took other photos but I feel the need to see a bit more at the top. Had you moved a little to your right, you may have been able to get the tree out from in front of the water.

3) Try to name the photo on flickr. It makes you think "Why did I take this photo?" or "What am I trying to show here?". Ideally, we should think of these _before_ taking the shot but after is also a good way to get into the habit of doing it. It also prevents you from taking the same kind of shots again and again - you will run out of titles

Again, a very good shot ... and keep clicking!

Solarian · #3 (**permalink**) 05-11-2010, 08:07 AM

Great feedback, thanks!
I actually did the many different exposures of the waterfall, but the problem is, I currently have nearly 1200 raws sitting on my hard drive waiting for me to go through them all, so I only quickly glanced through them in Lightroom, and picked out one or two from each set that I particularly liked.

I did get one in portrait mode of the waterfall, that shows more of the top, so I guess I can process that one too and post it up as a comparison. I've kinda gotten addicted to the rule of thirds thing, so I always try to third my shots

That's why there's so much greenery around it.

I totally agree on the last point though, sadly I almost never think about what I shoot. I still have that beginner attitude of "This looks cool, I'm going to take a picture of it"

It'll be a hard habit to form, but I'm going to give it my best.

windrider86 · #4 (**permalink**) 05-11-2010, 08:02 PM

any chance you could post your photo here on DPS???
It's much easier to help you if we dont have to flip back and forth from web page to web page. thanks!