The photographer is looking for generalized feedback about the aesthetic and technical qualities of their image.
Description
I’d love to be able to say I see something more than just a cool looking ICM photo of fall foliage stuck to a rock face with water cascading over them but that’s really all this is to me. And it’s enough because I really like the aesthetic!
Specific Feedback
I’m not too sure about the general lack of contrast here. Generally speaking, I think I often make my photos a bit too contrasty but this is the opposite. I’m also not too sure about the luminosity of the leaves toward the bottom of the frame in the middle -is that area too bright? Should I dim that area down a bit to give a better indication that I think the heart of the photo is the diagonal triangle just above it toward the center of the frame? (Hope I’m making sense here, I tend to be a person of few words but for some reason it’s just not the case when I’m behind a keyboard!
Technical Details
The actual scene here is a roughly 20 foot cascade sliding down a a sloping rock face littered with autumn leaves & mossy at the bottom. I shot it panning downward in an attempt to match the speed of the water. I used my D850 at ISO125, shutter speed of .4/10second with a Tamron 70-200 at f16.
Aesthetically I really like this. It reminds me of some super long crystals growing in a dark cave. Turned upside down and I see colorful stalagmites!
It’s hard to tell if more contrast would be nice or not. I find myself wanting to see a higher contrast version. The sharp diagonal lines seem to go along with high contrast, but I get it that you wanted to try something new. This is beautiful and eye-catching as is!
Technically the bottom doesn’t look too bright. Did you put a dark vignette around the image? That’d be one way of course to draw the viewer’s eyes toward the center.
Hi Mark, thank you for the suggestions! I didn’t vignette this at all that I can remember. I think it definitely needs a bit more contrast, mostly in the dark areas around the bright subject matter. I have a selection saved I’m going to apply the contrast to & see how it works. Eventually, I’m going to present this & a number of other compositions as a collection. The overall contrast of this will need to match Divine Spark, which shares similar colors & tonality. I’m going to print a small folio & send it to a photographic art gallery not far from me. I’d love to be able to get some of these in a group show -ideally, I’d be able to present the entire collection but I don’t have any “name” recognition so it’s highly unlikely I’d be able to do a solo show.
Hi Kris, this is a pretty cool and inventive shot. My immediate reaction was of candles with the melting wax running down. I’m thinking this image doesn’t want or need more contrast, that would destroy the aesthetic. I honestly don’t believe the luminosity in the area you mention is overly high either. Your area of interest has soft, even lighting and the slight leftward leaning angle adds some interest to the downward flow of the main subjects. Well seen and presented!
@Jim_Lockhart@joaoquintela Thank you both for your assessment! I have been tweaking it a little to bring the contrast range (primarily in the background) up just a bit to match the level of contrast in print to it’s sister images. I’m getting close to where it needs to be & will post an update over the weekend.
