Autumn in Utah

[Lady with a Camera]

I took this shot the other day and as much as I like it...I don't love it. I like the reflection of color in the river...but wish the river had been smoother for better reflection. What are your thoughts or suggestions on how I could improve this shot?

NIKON D5000

Aperature: F/22
Shutter: 1/60
ISO: 200
Focal Length: 55mm

[Sterling]

I think that other than the flash of yellow under the mountain peak, it is too dark. Those colorful leaves have come out looking rather muddy.

[Lady with a Camera]

Thanks for the input...I agree the colors look a little dark. I'll have to play around with it a bit and see if I can brighten it up.

[Krusty79]

Your horizon doesn't look quite level. The senior members on this site generally do not recommend shooting at apertures smaller than about f/13 to avoid the effects of diffraction. You have a very nice scene there, but there is no one subject that draws the viewer's eye. We get a lot of submissions of nice scenes that lack that one compelling subject, so I started this thread:

Is a compelling subject required?

[Michael_2010]

Was the sky overcast on the day you took this shot? Hard to get mirror like reflections under a gray sky.

[davidsaffir]

ah, well, the wind is always the adversary of the landscape photographer. even a breath of wind will cause ripples.

One way to avoid this is to get your shot earlier in the day - frequently around dawn the air will be still.

As far as the dark foreground goes, you did a pretty good job of balancing a brighter sky against a darker foreground. You might want to try taking two frames, bracketed about a stop apart, and combining them in Photoshop or another image editor.

David Saffir
GuruShots Photo Critique

[karma]

...if this is a no-no, I ran a quick auto levels and then just copied the layer and applied a 'screen' mode at around 31% to lighten it up a bit. It is a lovely photo....

Again, I will remove this if it is offensive.

[Lady with a Camera]

Thanks all for your input and suggestions. I am still pretty new at this and learn something new every day. It's always helpful to get constructive critiques. I know when I don't love one of my shots...but don't always know why.

Karma...
What you did with my photo looks a lot better. Thanks.