Alright we had beautiful weather here in Tennessee this weekend so I decided to go hiking in Cherokee National Park to a water fall I've never been to yet. I wasn't hoping to get much for photos since it is not really spring colors yet but I was surprised to see what I came back with being so early. I still want to go back and try again I cant put my finger on it, but it seems this image is missing something maybe some one can tell me what they think? Shot with a Nikon D7000 Tokina 12-24- Iso 100 f/22 1.3 sec @ 12 mm With a cokin 8 stop neutral density filter. Lightroom changes include exposer -2/3 stop, increase in temp plus 7 increase in blacks +10 saturation +10 Vibrancy +10, Lens correction and set to medium curves.
My thoughts are that its too tight at the top and a bit cluttered at the bottom, so I would suggest either lifting or tilting the tripod upwards. The water is almost appearing out of the top of the frame while I find the log and rock in the foreground distracting. I would put the top of the fall at the upper RH third. The light also looks to have been a little hard as the leaves are exposed nicely but its all dark and detail less in the shadows... Definitely worth a revisit in the golden hours, especially during the fall...
Don pretty much sums up my thoughts, but you are certainly on the right track. When you re-visit do try to arrive before sunrise or on an overcast day when you will have even lighting on the scene. Good use of the neutral density filter to slow things down and achieve the blurred water...by using a polarizer you will also slow down time and also cut the glare from the vegetation surrounding the waterfall. Can't wait to see more!
Hi Paul, Sometimes we try and get more in an image than is necessary and it ends up reducing the strength of the overall. In this case your strength is the waterfall. The clutter in the foreground IMO
is taking away from that very area. My first thought seeing this would have been to concentrate more on the falls than the clutterd FG. I then would have looked at other areas around the falls and see if I saw any clean compositions.
The lighting doesnt appear harsh but fairly even. Nothing is blown or blocked due to it however the best days are overcast for this type of image...
Hi Paul, I agree mostly with the others, but am not too bothered by the cluttered FG. I do think the waterfall needs some grounding and the FG boulders do a good job at that. But the FG catches much more light than the BG, which results in an unbalanced image. The BG is a bit dark and gloomy, while the FG is warm and light. You already got some good advice about returning when the lighting conditions are different, but you could also try opening up the shadows in post processing and maybe try to selectively warming up the BG.
Very pretty place which really deserves a follow up visit!
Benton Falls (Cherokee National Park)
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