Sinkhole

A shot from my local waterfall a little while ago. I’ve done a quick edit & I’m trying to work out if the composition works. The idea was to use the water in the foreground to pass through the frame to the sunlight.

Specific Feedback Requested

I’d love to know if there’s anything I can do to the composition to help, how the colour looks & if there’s anything I can do the darken the image

Technical Details

Is this a composite: No

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The upper 40% is wonderful. The lower part diffuses the impact of the image. I think it’s because the upper has greater contrast and the lower is blurrier.

Dale,
This looks like a wonderful waterfall and as an added bonus you mentioned it is local. I know I would be spending a lot of time there. The golden light above the falls is flat out gorgeous and I love all the tiers you captured here. Your chosen SS also works well for my tastes. My only suggestion would be to bring up the shadows some; particularly the URC. The scene also has a wonderful sense of depth that draws the viewer in and lets them feel the lush wetness of the area.

Dale - what a spectacular location. Judging from the appearance, I’m wondering if you’re in deep here!

If it weren’t for the title, I might’ve missed the “sinkhole”. I think it is a very attractive element of the scene and may make this location unique and special, but as presented, it isn’t quite translating to my eye. The sinkhole is getting lost in the very large degree of whitewater below the falls, merging them in my minds eye and preventing me from seeing it as truly unique. Because the whitewater below the falls takes up >50% of the image, it loses power as @Igor_Doncov quickly identified.

I wonder if there’s a way to discriminate this element better in your available frames? Is there some darker water swirling around the sinkhole that helps to distinguish it from the surrounding whitewater?

Otherwise, as already stated, the upper half of the image is great!

What a spectacular scene - you’re very lucky to have this near to you! Your ss for the upper half, with the falls, is perfect to convey the shape of the falling water. I think that same ss isn’t working for the sinkhole, though. Probably because the water’s movement there isn’t linear, like the falls. The various directions of movement at the sinkhole, at a longer ss, turns the scene too chaotic right at the sinkhole. It would be interesting to experiment with different shutter speeds to see how the sinkhole is best rendered to convey the water falling into a hole.

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