Brown leaf, floating

[Aegea]

I shot this fallen leaf floating downstream over the weekend. I've been looking at it for a couple of days, and really can't decide whether I like it or not, so critiques would be welcome!

[Tusia]

Wow, until I read your description of it as 'floating', I thought you had captured it flying - the water is so clear.

[wulf]

The fact it is floating adds a fascinating, surreal quality to the image. I think I'd want to play with the colours and contrast a bit (probably via a curves tool) and also bump the sharpness.

Have you got any infomation on the gear and settings you used for the shot?

Wulf

Too bad it's out of focus.

[PhotoPhix]

Originally Posted by Aegea

I shot this fallen leaf floating downstream over the weekend. I've been looking at it for a couple of days, and really can't decide whether I like it or not, so critiques would be welcome!

Thats a great shot of amazing gin clear water, nice capture. I think though its a bit soft,and no real way to tell as I wasnt there but the colors seem wrong at least on my computer.

Hope you dont mind some minor tweaks.

Armando

unsharpen mask
color corection layer
sharpness layer 27%
drop shadow frame.

[beedee]

I am a beginner so am no expert but I really like this photo.
To me the leaf looks as if it is flying above a moonscape....
I wonder what it would look like if there was a slight movement in the water to show that it was floating in the water?
Beryl

[Aegea]

Thank you all for the comments and help, I was struck by the clarity of the water and the surreal quality too.

I'm not sure why it came out soft here, as the original is quite a bit sharper.

It was taken with a Nikon D40 and a Nikkor 70-300 at about 220mm. 1/2000 at f5.6 and ISO 800 (yes, I should have used a lower ISO - I wasn't paying attention. Duh.)

Armando - I did do some adjustments to the color and sharpness, but your version looks better in several ways (although I kind of like the warmer tone of the creek bottom in mine). As far as I recall the actual colors were somewhere between yours and mine.