One of the things I enjoy about Scotland is that almost wherever one goes, one is near to water in some form. It might be rain of course, and at the moment we have a fair amount of snow (it dropped to -7C overnight a couple of nights back). But whether it is lochs, rivers or waterfalls then there is always something to see and take pictures of.
This one was taken at Black Linn, near Dunkeld, about 10m from where I live. _CTW7595.NEF (48.3 MB) _CTW7595.NEF.xmp (10.9 KB)
I really miss fast water and rocks. Where I live, they donât exist in the same places. We have almost no naturally-occuring rocks larger than coarse gravel. Virtually all natural water is wide, slow, generally dirty (muddy) and bottoms are soft.
Obviously subjective what we do with the exposure here, but my first attempt looked dull, so I lifted the exposure more. I used shadow and highlights module because I like the effect it has on the contrast and details in this shot.
I agree with Glenn - A crop really helps to remove distractions and focus attention. I used ART, brought chromaticity up to give a hint of color lurking in there and added a fair amount of local contrast to the water only. I also dropped the exposure on what background remained to emphasize the foreground rock a bit more.
TBH I also had to cover my tracks as much as possible on a little artifacting which I discovered too late to have any desire to backtrack and do over.
Sorry to be too lazy to submit an image⊠I would definitely decrease (or remove) the reflections on the large middleground rock (the one just behind the main one). Lovely scene and a fine image, by the way.
Yes, I attempted a ârule of oddsâ in my original image. Unfortunately, I couldnât get a closer crop in-camera without putting my tripod in the river
I like a lot of the responses to this particular âplay rawâ, it has provided me with a number of things to think about.
One thing that I noticed (which others may have no problem with) was that to my eyes thereâs not a strong initial indication which way the water is flowing. Yes, it can be determined without too much effort but itâs not like itâs a sloping downhill ârunâ thatâs obvious. I tried to think of some way to make it more obvious but couldnât. I liked seeing a little subtle color in the rocks and water, plus more detail in the water. But in bringing up the color in the rocks I created some color artifacts.
I really love your second image. I love the branch or tree creeping in from the left side. Imagine taking this shot when the light would hit that tree a bit more.
Where I live is known as âbig tree countryâ, while it would be nice to get the light on the branch, the whole area is surrounded by trees, as the Visit Scotland page shows.
looking forward to your next shoot.
