If you have been here, you know this is a pretty wide scene so I shot it as a pano but decided to crop it down to a 2x3 once I got to looking at it. Continuing to try to refine my skills, this one was shot before I started thinking more about composition and really studying that side of the art but I learned a lot in processing this image.
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Technical Details
Is this a composite: Yes
It’s an HDR merge in LR, tried to make sure not to pull up too much of the shadows after a failed first attempt. Pano cropped down after the fact.
The diaphanous look of the water you have achieved with processing is well done. As a composition the brighter rocks on both sides are a bit distracting. Although if you’re going to include them then both is better than one.
Thanks Igor. I shot this as a pano and had a hard time figuring out where to cut it off. There is a lot of room to the left and right. I did mess with including just the rock on the right and it pushed the waterfall too far to the left and threw things off balance. I also looked at a vertical 2x3 which wasn’t terrible, it emphasized the height of the waterfall which was nice but it lost some of the framing that I liked in the trees. Tradeoffs for sure. The location isn’t too far away and I will get there again and mess with different compositions.
I think the processing here looks good, you have a nice balance of cool and warm colors. Those warm rock cliffs on the right are pretty interesting.
Composition at this location looks like it could be challenging. Content dictates the choice of vertical vs. horizontal. A lot of waterfalls are frequently shot as verticals. But in this scene I like the shapes, textures and colors in the big rock cliff, which calls for a horizontal (especially due to the gold cliff). The bottom rocks complicate a horizontal, they have the potential to distract, but I agree with @Igor_Doncov, if you are going to include them, include both for balance. So you could make a case this is an okay compromise.
Luckily you can easily revisit this location. Go there, study it, and really get to know the location. Sometimes I’ve continually revisited a location, and its taken me multiple trips to really find a composition that works.
A square might sort of work, but it perhaps diminishes some of the appeal of the gold cliff.
