A River Landscape

[Martin Brazil]

I am interested in landscapes but am never really satisfied with any that I take.
Here is one that I prefer, any suggestions for improvement or is it irretrievably lame?
I cropped a little from the bottom but did not want to lose the sides so the dimensions are a bit out, is this a bad thing ?

[95PGTTech]

It's a nice shot, and has some potential, but doesn't have the color saturation for me. The colors don't pop off the screen out at me. You're also losing a bit of focus/sharpness it seems in the bottom right vegetation.

I'm no professional, so I can't put my finger exactly on why this doesn't work that well for me, but I'd still give it a B+. You've got the eye for the right shot, now you've just gotta figure out how to make the camera and the software give you the image you want.

[Frog]

I'm not a pro either but have had some success with landscapes.
What you see with your eye does not always come through in an image.
This is a worthy subject for photgraphy you have here, but the falls lose perspective as they are so centered in an otherwise static foreground and background.
Of course, I cannot know what the surrounding terrain is here but think your shot would do better as either wider or closer.
Wider would show the river leading to or going away from the falls.
For closer a I can envision a lower angle from those rocks on lower right looking toward the falls.
Always try to get your landscapes during the golden hours in am or pm.
This shot seems soft throughout and you may need to use a smaller aperture which if that dictates a slower shutter than you'll need to use your tripod.
In my opinion a landscape needs a dominant subject with both forground and background interest.
You might also consider cropping from the top down to just above the open areas under the trees and maybe even putting back some foreground.
Landscapes aren't as easy as it would seem they should be.

[readingr]

Its a good attempt and has some nice composition elements that could be made to work.

Frog has given you some good advise.

I like the angles seen as the rocks go from left to right across the river and leads you into the picture and then it goes a little awry. Crop out the sky with just a little showing in the right part of the picture which means cropping some of the tree tops out which tightens up the photo. I would even consider cropping a little off the bottom up to the water in the puddle on the left.

If you get another opportunity to go back here crouch down to take the picture to add more depth to the photo and also move left or right to see how the view changes. Take loads of photos and not just from one position.

When I take landscapes it takes me a while to find the best position to take the photo and I normally have between 10 - 40 photos of the place which are all different. Some of those will be taken at the same position but using different settings.

Happy to show you the crop I'm thinking of.

What equipment do you use?

Roger

[Martin Brazil]

Thanks very much for the advice guys. Frog, you put into words more or less exactly what I was feeling about the shot but was unable to put my finger on. I definitely agree that the time of day was wrong, which is what is probably what accounts for the lack of colour saturation mentioned by 95GT. Unfortunately I was only there for a few hours and missed the golden hours. Some great advice too Roger, crouching down would have definitely helped the picture. I would greatly appreciate seeing the crop you are thinking of.
Thanks again.

[readingr]

Thanks very much for the advice guys. Frog, you put into words more or less exactly what I was feeling about the shot but was unable to put my finger on. I definitely agree that the time of day was wrong, which is what is probably what accounts for the lack of colour saturation mentioned by 95GT. Unfortunately I was only there for a few hours and missed the golden hours. Some great advice too Roger, crouching down would have definitely helped the picture. I would greatly appreciate seeing the crop you are thinking of.
Thanks again.

This is what I was thinking about.

Roger

[danic]

Hi Martin,

When I see photo's of waterfalls, they are taken from the front of the waterfall. Perhaps try another angle or from across the bank where they sand is, shooting back to where this shot was taken from. This scene is worthy of a re-shoot though.

[Martin Brazil]

Thanks for the edit Roger, I think it improves the picture but still feel the picture is not good enough. It's as Frog said 'What you see with your eye does not always come through in an image'. The place is truly gorgeous and I will definitely be going back specifically to shoot the place. Something I did not mention and in reply to Rogers question, I was using my Nikon D40X with the 75-300mm zoom. I had actually left my kit at our camp and wandered of to try to shoot some birds rather than landscapes. Next time I will go at the right time, have the right kit and have a much better idea of what I want to achieve thanks to you guys.

[MichaelD]

I think it has too much of a snapshot kinda feel about it, personally I would prefer to get up closer to capture the "power" and movement of the water, even if it's not a huge waterfall.