I am from India.Visited Yosemite in May this year. Took many pics but chose this one for my first post. Would welcome any suggestions and thanks for looking.
I really like the composition. I think that you may be able to darken the back of the stream where the highlights are causing the stream to be blown-out causing loss of detail. It also doesn't look bad with the top of it cropped down to where all the light is basically the same.
Posted by Joshua Hardin on July 16, 2009 at 12:54 PM
Indeed welcome to the forum.
I agree with Jim. This is a difficult type of situation to work in due to the contrast and wide dynamic range required between the shaded area and the lighted area. You exposed well for the shaded area, but without the use of a graduated neutral density filter or an exposure blend in Photoshop (perhaps the better option here because of all the trees) the river's highlights became blown. With a little work using layers, you may be able to darken the bright areas of the river (and there are a lot of resources on this forum to search for advice on how to do that). Cheers!
Welcome aboard Arun. I have to echo the previous comments. The background top center and right need to be darkened significantly, while the shadows in the foreground could use some dodging to open them up a little more. Also, maybe a bump in midtone contrast would add a little pop. Nice composition.
Arun...welcome.... I agree with the above comments and composition. You have excellent shadow details in there, highlights may be can saved as well... welcome again and keep posting...regards, Rajeev.
Just wanted you to know that I love the capture of the rocks and water movement in the lower portion of the photograph. Seem to me that the upper portion is blown by over bright light, which most always happens when shooting into very bright light. A crop of the lower portion and the use of the shadow- highlight tool in ps would still produce a nice photograph.I really like the composition. Maybe if taken at a different time of day, this would have been a awsome photograph overall.
Posted by bill meikle on July 17, 2009 at 10:08 PM
Welcome aboard Arun, look forward to many more posts.
I like the composition; the lines and direction are nice. One thing I notice right away is the right to left flow; many "western" photographers try to make comps from left to right. This comp is very much right to left, which is immediately different.
The tree at the left side of the frame provides an immediate "stop"; the eye follows the flow to there, and the placement of the tree may keep the viewer's eye within the frame. However, it is a very sudden stop; not sure if leaving it out might have been better?
You did a good job handling the dynamic range; overall I think the range of tones looks very good.
Also, a nice balance of lines and shapes.
Lots of nice things to look at in this photo. Echoing the previous comments, a little more work on the detail in highlight and shadow areas, and maybe some creative dodging and burning, might help finish the image.
Discussion
9 repliesA location very near Bridaveil Falls - Yosemite.
http://picasaweb.google.co.in/lh/photo/VT53O3fx7IBxcW13MhmQEA?feat=directlink
Composition and sense of depth is good. However minimizing the overly light and dark areas would make it even better.
http://picasaweb.google.co.in/lh/photo/VT53O3fx7IBxcW13MhmQEA?feat=directlink
Welcome to the forums...
I really like the composition. I think that you may be able to darken the back of the stream where the highlights are causing the stream to be blown-out causing loss of detail. It also doesn't look bad with the top of it cropped down to where all the light is basically the same.
I agree with Jim. This is a difficult type of situation to work in due to the contrast and wide dynamic range required between the shaded area and the lighted area. You exposed well for the shaded area, but without the use of a graduated neutral density filter or an exposure blend in Photoshop (perhaps the better option here because of all the trees) the river's highlights became blown. With a little work using layers, you may be able to darken the bright areas of the river (and there are a lot of resources on this forum to search for advice on how to do that). Cheers!
I like the composition; the lines and direction are nice. One thing I notice right away is the right to left flow; many "western" photographers try to make comps from left to right. This comp is very much right to left, which is immediately different.
The tree at the left side of the frame provides an immediate "stop"; the eye follows the flow to there, and the placement of the tree may keep the viewer's eye within the frame. However, it is a very sudden stop; not sure if leaving it out might have been better?
You did a good job handling the dynamic range; overall I think the range of tones looks very good.
Also, a nice balance of lines and shapes.
Lots of nice things to look at in this photo. Echoing the previous comments, a little more work on the detail in highlight and shadow areas, and maybe some creative dodging and burning, might help finish the image.