Ok @bennett-family, since I didn’t get around to critiquing your waterfall pictures on the webinar, here are my written thoughts!
Horseshoe 1 – Fantastic composition. Love the progression of blurred rock (foreground), dark rocks in front of the falls (middleground) and dazzling falls (background). Focus is soft; either from it being cropped considerably, camera shake or maybe because of a cheaper-quality lens? Regardless, it would be good to add some extra sharpening.
Horseshoe 2 – I know this was shot for a more panoramic crop, so it’s good that there is a lot of extra space on the right. I thought maybe this just needed some editing to help make the photo pop, but, even cropped panoramically, the composition isn’t drawing me in for some reason. The fall colors in the background are great, which is what you really captured well in “Horseshoe 3”.
Horseshoe 3 – This one isn’t submitted on the thread above, but it’s in the original files you sent. I think this is your best shot of that falls! It’s edited VERY well. It’s colorful in the proper balance, without it looking over-saturated. I maybe would crop the right and bottom off to help eliminate distractions and keep the focus on the beautiful textures in the waterfall against the pleasing colors beyond it.
Horseshoe 4 – This is a nice close up shot. It’s more than just falling water. The rocks provide great contrast in line direction and luminosity value. It feels like an intentional composition. I’ve attached how I liked it being edited.
Horseshoe 5 – I really want to like this image because it has all the elements of a good image. There are less distractions than in the other wide-angle shots. The falls on the right provide something for the eye to initially latch on to. Fall colors are sprinkled throughout. There’s even a rainbow on the left! But it just doesn’t have the feeling of “wow” for some reason. It’s probably the composition. I’ve photographed enough waterfalls to know it takes quite a bit of effort (and it’s sometimes even dangerous!) to get to good angles. And this looks like a fairly difficult spot to get to. But I’d have to be there to know what I would advice you do to make the composition pop. It could be, too, that it’s just the time of day and the light is fairly flat and high contrasty. Have to say, though, I’m sure you had fun on this photoshoot climbing around on wet rocks (and probably in wet socks?). I find VERY few people who are willing to endure the physical discomforts of landscape photography. 🙂
Mixville 1 – Is the “effect” on this photo from lens flare? Sometimes lens flare can look really cool. For this situation though, I kinda feel it doesn’t work? I think I’d rather experience the texture of the rocks and falling water in this one, like you did in Horeshoe 4. It might be fun to hear the backstory of this shot though. 🙂
Good work, Lydia. I hope the experience of trying to get good photos was as fun as (if not more so) getting some good shots. Much of the fun of flipping through a portfolio is reliving the experiences. 🙂
