The fellow in the red (unknown) showed up in the shot, and I decided to leave him in for scale…even with his red jacket. Some might think he’s a distraction, but I made him the center of interest w/ intention. Both for waterfall scale, but also because Nat Geo used to deliberately ask their staff photographers to have red on their people in their shots. Many will think he is just a distraction. Would be interested in your thoughts???
Pertinent technical details or techniques:
(If this is a composite, etc. please be honest with your techniques to help others learn)
My widest lens in those days was a 24 TS-E lens, so I shot a 2-shot Vertorama in landscape orientation, and then photo merged.
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Great shot, but in this instance I think it’s kind of a distraction. If he were standing upright where you could see all of him it would be great.
I am not the owner of this site and not the post police, but it would be nice if you would participate more actively in commenting on other’s photos. You seem to have plenty of time to post images and respond to others that comment on your images. This is a community not just a showcase. JMHO
If this was taken on June 20 last year, that might have been me in the red jacket. Sorry I wasn’t aware that I was walking into your shot, I’m usually pretty careful about that. Check the similarity in the flow of the waterfall between your image and mine.
Hi Doug, You guys certainly have some epic waterfalls near you. This is quite cool.
Personally I find him (I’m assuing it’ a him) a bit distracting. the red coat was the first thing I saw. I think the trees in the upper right corner give a great sense of scale. We all know how big conifers can get and having them in your images does the scale job for me.
Looking again, at the scale that the image is at the chap doesn’t provide scale. Crop it 1:1 ratio and he has more of an impact on the shot. In additon I think that if he was standing then it would give better scale than seated.
Technically (or maybe this this is artically) I think that having the waterfall positioned more centrally acts like a veil. This is framed nicely by the semi-circle of rocks where the guy is sitting. This on it’s own is a great image. The image feels like it is one of two halves; the waterfall at the top and the browner water at the bottom. I feel like the image is split and the lower half detracts from the upper section. Technically, I find the to be an inbalance.
The other thing that catches my eye is the ray of light and the greens/yellows that surround it. I am going to assume that you have dodged the ray to accentuate the light as it stands out quite a bit more than I would expect. I would suggest, if you havn’t already, using a soft brush at a low opacity to gently add it in. I think that as a result the yellows/greens in that area especially have become a bit ‘radiant’. There, on the right side of the image and to a certain extent in the midground rocks. I had a very crude play in PS at reducing the saturation and also trying to balance the shot on the left and right. Balancing the light will really have the effect of focusing your eyes onto the falls that are the main part of the scene.
I have hiked up to these falls several times and what strikes me about this image is how different it is from what you see. The falls are enormous and the rocks below are, well, just like rock. I know it’s wrong, but Im clinging on to reality and am having a hard time with what Vertorama has produced.
Ok, now having got that out of the way I do like the color scheme you came up with (mine is always too blue). I also like the lighting here, with the dark bottom and the luminous mosses. Honestly, the guy doesn’t bother me. It’s just that he’s looking straight at the camera like those pictures that are now popular with cell phones. So in that sense, it probably wouldn’t make a good Nat Geo image, but what do I know.
Doug, I am coming in late here, and you have gotten some good input already. I’ll add another vote to the column of red jacket guy as being a minor distraction. To be fair it depends on the intended purpose of the image. My only thought is that when including people in a landscape, my preference is to see the entire person (although not necessarily their face). This person is just too small in the frame for my taste, and thus becomes a minor distraction.
My comments on composition mirror those of @Eugene_Theron. To me the still water and rocks in the bottom quarter are just not as interesting as the nice stuff that’s going on above. Those multiple veils of water look really beautiful ( thanks to your shutter speed ), and I would prefer to see a comp that places more emphasis on the falls.
