Critique please- Landscape

[docbell]

I am new to the slr/digital world. Recently took this pic when out playing with the new camera. Honest, brutal critiques wanted (I think). Thanx.

http://docbell.smugmug.com/photos/25190062-M.jpg


Shot with a Rebel XT, on aperataure priority, 22, 0"3, iso 200, white balance set on shade

[behr655]

I am new to the slr/digital world. Recently took this pic when out playing with the new camera. Honest, brutal critiques wanted (I think). Thanx.


http://docbell.smugmug.com/gallery/598430/1/25190062/Medium

Shot with a Rebel XT, on aperataure priority, 22, 0"3, iso 200, white balance set on shade
Ahh, the Red X. I see a lot of these shots. Not bad but it's a little OOF. :D

Bear

[Shay Stephens]

I edited your post to make the photo show up.

Now to the whipping...:wink

The long exposure looks nice with how it blurs the water, but two things still detract from image.

1) Color balance looks too cool. When you are in shade like this the color temperature gets much higher than daylight. The blue cast that imparts makes the foliage loose it's pop. A warmer color balance, either in camera via the white balance control or in post would make this scene more attractive to my eye.

2) The composition is basically a bullseye on the rock, when the action is really the water. tilting the camera down would have given you more real estate to highlight the waterfall. All that green foliage above the water isn't that intriguing enough in my view to warrant all that space above the rocks.

It could use a little more exposure to brighten it up a bit, and you might consider a 10:4 crop to rescue the photo.

What I am thinking of looks something like this:
http://forums.shaystephens.com/graphics/waterfall104.jpg

[adrian_k]

the white balance is obviously off. As much as people like to say "I shoot fully manual" in my experience all modern digicams do a very good of white balance esp. when shooting outside.
If you have photoshop or similar you can correct this.

I think Shay's right about framing but I think he's cropped off too much at the top. I would try cropping just above the rock on the left.

On the whole, not a bad job.

I am new to the slr/digital world. Recently took this pic when out playing with the new camera. Honest, brutal critiques wanted (I think). Thanx.

http://docbell.smugmug.com/photos/25190062-M.jpg


Shot with a Rebel XT, on aperataure priority, 22, 0"3, iso 200, white balance set on shade

[rutt]

If you follow the instructions here: http://www.dgrin.com/showpost.php?p=123231&postcount=5 you can get the colors to be a lot better. Try setting the color sampler on the white water. You might not want this to be pure white but it's a good start. After you do this, you might want to steepen the blue side of the B curve just a tad. You'll know by eye.

[ginger_55]

If you follow the instructions here: http://www.dgrin.com/showpost.php?p=123231&postcount=5 you can get the colors to be a lot better. Try setting the color sampler on the white water. You might not want this to be pure white but it's a good start. After you do this, you might want to steepen the blue side of the B curve just a tad. You'll know by eye.
Thanks, Rutt. I have many color shifts with my birds, so was interested in this post.

I have used something in RAW, but the cloudy/shade setting in RAW always seems a bit much and I tone it down. That is neither here nor there.

What I am wondering is what is ACR, those initials. Am I missing something in RAW?

What exactly do you do in RAW to fix the color balance. I always shoot in RAW.

thanks,
ginger

[Shay Stephens]

ACR is the acronym for Adobe Camera Raw, if you are using Photoshop, then you are already using ACR when you process a RAW file.

When I am using RAW to control the white balance, I try to sample something neutral in the scene (white to gray). If I can't find something like that in the scene, then I will use a preset (e.g. daylight) and then fine tune the 'temperature' and 'tint' controls to get a color balance that pleases me or at least displeases me the least :wink

What I am wondering is what is ACR, those initials. Am I missing something in RAW?

What exactly do you do in RAW to fix the color balance. I always shoot in RAW.