I had been down in the Tuolumne River Canyon looking for a pair of eagles that a reliable source claimed had been seem where the bridge crosses the river. No luck. But I did stop at this little creek on my way back home. The day was cloudy so I had to deal with flat light. The color of the vegetation on the far bank caught my eye. It didn't need any additional saturation.
I'm particularly interested comments on the composition since I was trying to get as low as I could on this shot.
Nikon D300, 18-200mm len at 52mm, 1/40, f8, Polarizer
Since you asked, the comp seems OK, but I don't find anything interesting about the image. I'm curious as to what compelled you to stop and shoot this.
I like the swirly grasses on the far bank. I am thinking a tight composition using those elements would work well in this locale.
Posted by Lon Overacker on January 8, 2010 at 12:14 PM
Dan,
I can see the attraction the the grasses along the bank - I love that stuff too. the hard part is that they're always on the "other side" of the river and thus it's hard to isolate them. Compositionally, my only nit is the bank on the left. I would crop it out or not have included it. The somewhat cluttered forest up top doesn't bother me since proportionally it's not a lot of the frame and the tufts of grasses and reflection are the main subject.
Processing wise, you didn't mention anything, but personally it looks like the saturation is a little high. Especially in the greens. The reds are up a little too. What you can do when using a saturation adjustment (assuming Photoshop?) is individually adjust the colors rather than globally. So you can not touch the green, while boosting the red, yellow or blue, etc.
Anyway, you managed a pleasant scene out of a pretty complicated environment.
I can definitely see why those clumps of vegetation on the far bank caught your eye and the decision to shoot low. That said, I would have omitted that left bank by either going in tighter or maybe turning the camera vertically. I think a vertical shot with the blue sky reflection in the fg bottom and some vegetation and trees filling out the top (without any sky) might be nice. Play around with area the next time you're in search for those eagles.
Discussion
4 repliesI'm particularly interested comments on the composition since I was trying to get as low as I could on this shot.
Nikon D300, 18-200mm len at 52mm, 1/40, f8, Polarizer
Dan Ryan
Northern California
Since you asked, the comp seems OK, but I don't find anything interesting about the image. I'm curious as to what compelled you to stop and shoot this.
I can see the attraction the the grasses along the bank - I love that stuff too. the hard part is that they're always on the "other side" of the river and thus it's hard to isolate them. Compositionally, my only nit is the bank on the left. I would crop it out or not have included it. The somewhat cluttered forest up top doesn't bother me since proportionally it's not a lot of the frame and the tufts of grasses and reflection are the main subject.
Processing wise, you didn't mention anything, but personally it looks like the saturation is a little high. Especially in the greens. The reds are up a little too. What you can do when using a saturation adjustment (assuming Photoshop?) is individually adjust the colors rather than globally. So you can not touch the green, while boosting the red, yellow or blue, etc.
Anyway, you managed a pleasant scene out of a pretty complicated environment.
Lon