First off thought I would say Hi
I have had a bit of a break from photography for a number of years, and now this digital stuff has arrived (the first digital I used was at college in the 90's) I have got myself a DSLR and I am starting to play again.
this shot was taken on a recent trip to mid Wales on a long exposure.
any comments welcome
Allan, I always preface a critique request by emphasizing that what I'm about to tell you is only the way I personally would approach taking a photo or editing an image. With that said, I'd like to ask you an important question that will help critique this image – Can you tell me why you took the image in the first place? I'm not trying to be facetious or rude in any way. It's an important question that every photographer should ask before they press the shutter button. Why did you take this image? What's your subject? What were you trying to convey?
Hi Stuart, your question is very relevant, first off the picture was taken in a wonderful location, which if full of spiritual energy, so I wanted to try and get that across, then it was to try and get over how natural and untouched the area was. The water was the main aspect of the image I wanted to get, and to get the sense of movement I went with a long exposure, and I liked the way I could almost frame the image with the moss covered tree, rather than just a picture of the flowing water over the rocks that it has carved its way through.
I hope that answers some of your questions, as for the editing bit, I am still quite old fashioned as I can't get my head round this photo editing stuff, so all my images are just as they are taken with no playing about
Thanks for putting up with my question. It's important for me to know before I even try to give feedback. If the water's flow was your main focus, I think you fell short of achieving your goal. When I first looked at this, I was wondering to myself, "What's the subject here?" I think you have to make it clearer, cleaner and simpler for the observer to recognize what your subject is. If your goal was a silky flow of water framed through the trees (a good goal), then I would have gotten a lot closer to the dangling branches and shot from there (closer to the bank of the stream. Don't fall in....:) The water is also overexposed...too much light. The highlights are blown out. If you were having too much trouble getting the water to look silky with a faster shutter speed, then try using an ND filter to cut the light reaching your sensor. That will slow the shutter down several stops, depending on which ND filter you screw on the front of the lens. I think the goal was a good one but the execution fell short. It needs to be cleaner, simpler. Good luck out there.
Thank you for your comments Stuart, and after looking again at the image with your comments in mind I can see what you are saying, unfortunately my kit bag is not what it use to be when I was shooting film, and a lot of the filters don't fit onto my DSLR so I might have to look at investing in a few new bits.
The ND filter that you mention, is that a Natural density filter that I have heard some people talk about? I use to use polarising filters quite a bit back in the day, but I have never used natural density filters.
my other quandary with the exposure of the shot, if I reduced the exposure to not blow out the highlights, would this not make the tree framing look to dark? or is this something that could be altered in this new fangled photo editing magic?
I can see me doing a whole series of water shots for a bit to try and get this right :)
This is a reply to your response posted below, Allan. It's a Neutral Density filter I was referring to. You can get them in a variety of light-reducing strengths. You can also get a vari-neutral density filter where one filter can apply a wide range of strengths. They can be much stronger and more effective than polarizers at cutting light on a bright sunny day enough to slow down your exposure to create the silky look of flowing water. But a polarizer sometimes works fine in low light situations. On a bright sunny day a circular polarizer might not be enough. As for the exposure question you posed, I think that's answered for you when you said the important subject in the image was flow of water. Therefore, let the branches that frame it go dark, maybe even to point of being silhouettes. There's not much in the branches worth saving detail for, especially if you execute the idea of merely using them to frame the creek.
Good luck