Virginia Cascade w/ repost

This was taken in Glacier National Park on the way to Virginia Falls. We didn't make it to the main falls that day, because of all the interesting cascades along the way. I was so interested in this tiny cascade that I forgot all my filters when we hiked out, so we hiked back the next morning, found the filters and continued the walk to Virginia Falls.

This little cascade interested me the most, and I loved all the reds in the strata. At Sean Bagshaw's suggestion I collected a number of cottonwood leaves to form the spinning foreground. Taken at f22, 6 sec., at 31mm.

Let me know your thoughts.

David

Your careful work setting up this composition really came together. I love seeing the cascade zig zag through the scene and the spinning leaves in the FG really give the eyes a payoff when they reach the end. I might burn or darken the area above the falls a bit to lessen it's visual draw. On my monitor the WB looks a bit on the warm/yellow side. It might work to cool it down a bit and then selectively adjust the saturation on the reds and yellows to bring back the color in the rocks and leaves.

Nice overall but seems a little cramped and soft to me. Love the water action.

Thanks for your imput guys. I reworked the colors Sean and burned the area above. John, I left more room at the top and bottom, and cloned out some of the distracting bright spots. And for some reason I forgot to sharpen the previous post, so this one is more sharp.

David

I'm liking this more and more David. Sharpening really helped and the WB feels better. There is also much better shadow detail in the rocks in this one and the leaves visually pop out of the pool much more. The darkened upper area doesn't pull my eye away as much now. Based on my memory of the spot, the rocks seemed even more red, especially the wet ones with a polarizer. I would bring up the reds a bit more with a Selective Color adjustment layer or with the red channel in a Hue/Saturation adjustment layer.

Nice re-work. It is a wonderful image.

This is a great shot. I have tried similar photos many times without a whole lot of success. I think the re-work is a big improvement in the color department. One thing I try to do if I am doing a little leaf collecting and clean up is look for dead space that could use some attention. Placing some sationary leaves on the rocks would help spice it up a little, and fill in the gaps as well.

Aaron