Mossy Brook Reflection

[Xia_Ke]

Took this shot while out for a hike today. I really want to like it but, the sun was harsh and blew out that one plant in the upper right which is driving me nuts. However, I don't want to clone it out. Couple people said I'm nuts and it's not a problem at all. What do you guys think?

[swmdrayfan]

Aaron, I know what you mean. I think the leaves there are a little blown out, myself. Is there any way you can get back there and reshoot? I think the shadows are a little too strong also. JMHO.
John

[Xia_Ke]

Thanks John I kind of liked the shadows. They sort of added a little mystery and character to it. The thing that caught my eye was the one ray of light coming through the tree canopy and highlighting that one plant. With the naked eye though, of course that one plant wasn't blown out. I could try a reshoot but, will never be able to recreate that lighting I don't think. I'll have to swing by there on the next overcast day and see how that lighting works for this spot.

Aaron

[Overbeyond]

This picture gives off a nice sense of seclusion and the shades work well.

[freygr]

I do like the photo, but like you said the light range for the camera was too much. I think a tripod and exposure bracketing and post processing was called for or the Photomatix HDR program

[Xia_Ke]

Thank you Overbeyond

freygr, this was shot using a tripod and I tried several different exposures. I had to use the "Fill Light" option in Lightroom to bring the shadows back to where they are. The above shot was the best combination of being able to bring back the shadow areas combined with not overly blowing out the highlighted area. Would a polarizer have worked in this situation or would it ruined the reflection in the water in the process?

[GB1]

Don't clone it out, but you can try masking the area in stages and reducing the density. Might take awhile to get right, but this shot is very very good ... Very subtle use of lighting. I really like the DOF, the reflections, and the colors.

GB

[PrevailingConditions]

Aaron,

I like the way the shadows play along the brook and I would worry that you would miss that on a cloudy day. I also like the way the light highlights the leaves, but they are a little bright.

PC

[Xia_Ke]

Thank you very much for the input guys

GB, I found another shot in the group that the leaves of that one plant are recoverable. I'm gonna try and see if I can perform a little "transplant" to fix the issue. We'll see how it goes as I've never tried anything like that before.

[mdmc]

I like this a lot.
I do agree that the shadows are to dark, however thats up to you.
I think that you're right with your concerns about the blown highlights, but that can be fixed by careful use with the paint brush. When I make major changes I make them on a duplicate layer and over do them a bit, then I reduce the opacity of the layer untill it looks good.
Just by lightening up the shadows a bit the image looks better to me and there is less emphasis on the blown highlights.
With an image this good I would do what it takes to fix it.

Nice shot,
Mark.
BTW, is that a frog just lower left of the blown highlights?

[Xia_Ke]

Thank you very much Mark I have a couple ideas I'm going to play around with when I get some time to really sit down and play. I'll post the results here after I get them done. And yes, that is a frog ;) Good eye

Aaron