Song of the Sea

Hey Chris, beautiful image, love the color and exposure! Couple of critiques - I find the dark to light sky to be too strong, maybe some dodging and burning. Secondly - and there's not much that can be done, but the foreground is so strong I want it to lead me to something... and my eye travels to open ocean. It's such a standard foreground for waterfalls that begins this stair step comp. For the ocean... I feel like there needs to be more cascades or rocks, something more to hold interest beyond the foreground. I hope that helps!

Killer color...feel that the bottom is cut off just a bit...want to see the hit point of the water. Way to get in close :)

aF

Excellent composition colors and details. Good work.

I love that rock, the wave, and the soft light on it. I wish you had included a little more space at the bottom so I could see the end of the wave. For me, the sky isn't really necessary for the picture and in many ways I prefer a crop of just the rock/wave area.

Beautiful colours and a finely composed frame. This image is 'sort of different' from the usual seascapes we get to see. The 'mini waterfall' in the front flowing right into you makes this unique in a way. The only thing I might change in this image is to lighten the upper-left.

As Aaron said, way to get in close for this! While it's definitely an interesting FG subject, I too would like more real estate at the bottom of this and want to see the water under the waterfall. I'm also not loving the centered comp in a horizontal format, I would much prefer a vert comp in this circumstance including the falls and focusing on the more interesting cloud up above. Hope this helps!

The centered composition works well for me. I love the foreground detail and the beautiful reflected light on the water. This is really beautiful!

Beautiful colours and shutter speed. I would like more room at the bottom to see the complete cascade and it's landing point.

Hi Chris, Great shot, it's a very simple composition yet it has a lot of appeal. Maybe the camera a little lower next time?This would reduce the middle part a bit and retain all of the wonderful sky. I also agree that you should lighten the sky but leave the right side as is. I mostly find that a 2 stop ND is enough for this type of shot and then burn in a little bit later if needed.

Thanks for the critiques. I reprocessed using some of your suggestions- I found a file that was shot a little lower, and made it a vertical crop, took down the saturation and lightened the sky a little. Let me know if this works better. Thanks!

Awesome improvements Chris! Looks fantastic!

Thanks, Justin. As far as the open ocean... in Florida there just isn't anything out there :)

I think both of these are really beautiful photographs. The second vertical crop seems to "fit" the foreground better for me. Congrats on some great photographs!

Chris a truly stunning image! Beautiful work!

I think the centered comp adds a lot of strength to the image. ULC seems a bit dark but the focus is securely on the water pouring over the rock.

Beautiful image, Chris. Love the composition with the centered "falls" and the incredible color. While I agree that a little more space below the falls would be nice, it is not a deal breaker in my opinion. Much prefer your original horizontal composition over the cropped vertical repost. Outstanding image.

Gorgeous colors and great water !
Not sure about the centered comp, though - I'd like to see alternates too - I'm sure you took lots of different angles.
Sandy

Cool. Unusual composition, and I think that's what really makes it work. The vertical version doesn't interest me nearly as much, and I like the darker/more saturated appearance processing of the horizontal.

I like this very dynamic scene, the foreground water movement likes a waterfall.

nice conditions and i prefer the re-post. i wouldn't have minded some stuff between the rock and the horizon ... but heck cannot have it all! well done.

Chris,
this is an absolutely stunning image and reminds me of a creature coming out of the sea.
I really love this composition allthough some might think of a little off-centered design for the foreground.

All the best,
Christian.

Love the comp and shutter speed. The water is exqusite. Colors do look a tad oversaturated though.

Gorgeous color and light, and I agree with some lightening of the left side by just a bit. I also agree with Floris about a crop off of the top to give more prominence to the rock, which is killer.

OOps, just saw your repost. That's what I'm talking about!

I actually like the original and don't mind that you don't see the bottom of the cascading water. The colors. water movement, and textures are all fantastic.

This image works, in a really weird way. The crop is perfect, too. Great work!

I think this is really cool and an original comp. Very cool!

I don't like the ultra heaviness of the upper left corner, which brings me to a very important technique! Using the Gradient adjustment tool in ACR to balance tones before major development work!

Like the vertical best

Wonderful image, I like everything about the original post and would not change a thing. The water fall leads me right into the image to check out all the colors, great job, way to go.

I'm not one to center things normally. In this case, I'd have to say it works well. This image is stunning! I love the texture and reflected light in the foreground! The horizontal is my favorite of the two.

Thanks for all the comments. Seems split as far as which version is better. I really like the pattern of the water cascade on the original shot better than the second shot which includes more content below the falls. So for one more repost, I just cropped the original as a vertical, eliminating most of the darkened ULC.