Appalachian Forest in the winter

[MarioG]

I'm new to posting (and taking) pictures.
This shot was taken in an overcast afternoon, in a ravine within a forested area.
Minimal PP= Camera Raw auto White balance and auto settings. Increased a little saturation until it looked good, and then cropped it.

Two requests:
1. Critique of composition.
2. When I look at the RAW file in Bridge or Camera RAW, it looks good, but when I save as JPG for posting it gets darker. How to preserve what I see in RAW when saved to JPG?

Thanks



Exif:
1/50
f/3.8
26 mm
No flash
Auto WB

[TheCheesWizz]

Wow. Im no expert so Im just going to say wow. I really like it.

[MarioG]

Originally Posted by TheCheesWizz

Wow. Im no expert so Im just going to say wow. I really like it.

Thank you for the comment.

[tvoelcker]

Can't really offer much advice on your second question but I will offer a critique to the best of my abilities.
Streams make a good subject and finding one that curves really adds a nice touch.
This is a pretty busy and cluttered scene so it is rather difficult to compose.
There is a tree in the foreground to the far left that leads the eye out of the frame. Cropping that out would be a good improvement. I like the log that is laying across the stream which gives a nice restfull horizonal line. Unfortunatly there are too many trees in front of it that keep breaking up the smooth line.
Behind the log I find nothing in particular that adds any real interest to the picture.
A b&w conversion might help a bit but other than that I don't know what more to suggest.
Perhaps someone else might be of more help.

[MarioG]

tvoelcker, thank you for the critique. I will recompose following your suggestions.