Jarbidge Stream

I took this picture early one morning on a camping trip. I was experimenting with slow shutter speeds. Unfortunately, I awoke too late, and the light was already too bright for a really slow shutter speed. I guess that's my punishment for being lazy and sleeping in. Still, I liked the way this turned out. I would appreciate any feedback.

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Originally Posted by cycledad

I took this picture early one morning on a camping trip. I was experimenting with slow shutter speeds. Unfortunately, I awoke too late, and the light was already too bright for a really slow shutter speed. I guess that's my punishment for being lazy and sleeping in. Still, I liked the way this turned out. I would appreciate any feedback.

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It looks almost 3D, but I find myself looking for a focal point. Maybe that's just tme.

The slow shutter was fine here, I think. But the aperture could have been smaller. The background is soft, which tells me you could have stopped down more, no? Stopping down would have given you a slower shutter. I usually don't shoot a waterfall unless I can get a shutter of at least 1 second. I prefer 2 or 4 seconds, but sometimes I have to use my 2-stop polarizer as an ND filter to get that.
The colors seem a bit washed out, too. But I've taken about a thousand bad waterall shots that weren't as nice as this one. Good job!

I like it and I like it soft. The focal point to me is the water. My eye travels around the very interesting rocks, and the softness puts me into a warm happy mood. It's the visual equivalent of meditation. :)

I rather like it and I think the slow shutter is still effect even if you weren't able to go as slow as you'd have liked.

I don't think I'd say its lacking a focal point (my eyes go first to the rock in the center of the stream), though I would say that the larger rock to the left of the rock in the center of the river distracts from this focal point and draws your eyes from that central rock.

I like the smoothness, but the image is too flat for me, mostly because of the lack of depth, a real focus point and slightly flat lighting

I like the smoothnes as well, but the flat lighting is hurting here. It somehow lacks the depth it looks like it should have. It is still a pleasant image, though.

Overall, a nice shot.

The focal point, to me, are the rocks standing out among the softened water. I think there is plenty of depth from foreground to back with the eye easily led there.

I would crop out most of the branches on top - though they may help frame the scene, I think they are more of a distraction. And I would also recommend a very slight sharpening (preferably high-pass if you have PS) and a levels adjustment to increase the contrast a bit.

Tuna

I agree it's flat. But I like the composition.