Waterfall - Am I on to something or is this generic?

[jbaseball2001]

This summer I decided to teach myself landscape photography and figured that waterfalls were a good place to start. I am in need of some constructive critique of my efforts.

Please understand that I fully appreciate a blunt and honest review...I am need of your help if I am to improve. So please do not hold back you comments to make me feel better...My wife does a decent job of saying "oh that picture looks pretty"...

Specifically I am after the following feedback, though I do appreciate all thoughts:

1) Composition: What elements of this photo distracts or devalues?
2) Exposure: Over, under, acceptable?
3) Ultimately I am trying to get from, "gee look a waterfall" to "wow, you took that"! I am never going to make money from my photos, but I do wonder if I might enter a shot one day into a contest...what do I need to do to push these to the next level?

Thank you so much for your time and comments.


Nikon D80, 18-55, 1/2 sec, f/20, ISO 200

[Krusty79]

I'd say you're off to a pretty good start. Regarding the composition, I find the most of the compelling waterfall shots are taken from more of a straight-on angle instead of off to the side. So, if you could have moved a bit to the left, that would accomplish that. It also helps to have some foreground interest, like a rock, to help lead the viewer's eye into the image. Your exposure looks pretty good. You could do some dodging or layer masking to brighten up the dark areas a little. You're on the right track, though.

[NikD300]

Gorgeous shot.

[Corey Thompson]

Definitely a great shot. A little exposure blending could help out great with some of the dark areas. I recently stumbled on this series of articles and found it to be quite helpful.

Exposure Blending | Christopher O'Donnell

[NgaiHill]

Very nice shot, I like how the old fallen logs frame the waterfall.
However it doesn't seem all that sharp all the way through, assume you shot from a tripod?

[milosh]

Originally Posted by jbaseball2001

Specifically I am after the following feedback, though I do appreciate all thoughts:

1) Composition: What elements of this photo distracts or devalues?
2) Exposure: Over, under, acceptable?
3) Ultimately I am trying to get from, "gee look a waterfall" to "wow, you took that"! I am never going to make money from my photos, but I do wonder if I might enter a shot one day into a contest...what do I need to do to push these to the next level?

1) I agree with what Krusty said about composition. I think the scenery is amazing but I would like to see a more head-on shot of the waterfall. I assume you wanted to include the whole flow of the river from one corner of your frame to another, but you can also create that sense of dynamics with a more straight-on view. Too dark and too bright areas in a photo tend to act as magnets for our attention and pull it away from the subject. For me, this is the case with underexposed lower right corner and that underexposed area under the log in the bottom of the frame. Also, I would like to see less of that lush green area above the waterfall (upper left corner). Although it is very nice, it doesn't do much for your subject.

2) I think the exposure of water and green areas (excluding the ones mentioned above) is good, they're not overexposed. Maybe a small change in white balance would render the water even whiter than it is now. I also think the saturation of the grass and moss is fine.

3) Read and remember what others tell you, and then do your best to apply that when shooting. And keep posting here for critique.

4) If light situation permits, try not to use apertures smaller than f16 because of diffraction which impacts your image quality. And I'm not sure is the native ISO value for your D80 ISO 100 or 200, but you should generally try to use the lowest value available.

5) Your photo is blurry and I wouldn't say that was caused by camera movement, perhaps your lens wasn't focused properly..

[John Hendry]

Originally Posted by Corey Thompson

Definitely a great shot. A little exposure blending could help out great with some of the dark areas. I recently stumbled on this series of articles and found it to be quite helpful.

Exposure Blending | Christopher O'Donnell

All good shot i would agree a better composition would be from the left, with the river leading into the waterfall

Thanks for the link great stuff

all the best

[jbaseball2001]

I cannot say thank you enough to all of you who have responded.

I literally see the photo completely differently after you reviews!

I am lucky enough to be heading out again next week for a full 14 hours of shooting...I have already written much of your advice in my notebook and will be reffering to it often as I shoot.

I have one other shot that I will post in a new thread from an area up stream...If you are so inclinded, I would love to hear your comments...

Again thank you to all for your time, knowledge, and candour...if anyone else has thoughts, my ears are wide open!

Thanks!!!

[milosh]

Originally Posted by jbaseball2001

...if anyone else has thoughts, my ears are wide open!

Thanks!!!

One very important: spend more (or at least as much) time on finding a good composition than on shooting it. People usually just rush and click away. You need to take your time, ask yourself a few questions, like what is your main subject, what are your other subjects, how big does your main subject needs to be, then experiment with different points of view and different angles. After that, look for things that are not contributing to the shot and try to exclude them.

[EOBeav]

Without seeing a larger image, it looks a little soft, and I wonder if that has something to do with such a narrow aperture value. For me, I try to stick between f/11 and f/16 when I'm doing waterfall shots. Also, as long as you're using a tripod, might as well go to ISO 100. It will lengthen your shutter time, but probably not so much that you blow out those hot spots. Then again, you may have already thought that one through on location and settled on this ISO setting accordingly.