Critique Roughting Linn waterfall-Northumberland

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I love the first… not because it has no colours but, because
it has no colours, all the beauty of the graphic elements are
brought forwards beautifully! (y)(y)(y)
 
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Agree with Kodiac, also like the fourth both for the same reason and because the fall at lower left is better separated from the edge. The close shots also avoid the inevitably blown sky.
 
The black and white shots look great - almost like the rocks have something glowing within them
 
The 1st one is stunning . Would love to see that printed big on brushed aluminium
 
Yup, the first is fab, with the water creating glowing lines across the rock face - simples lines across an elephant's face (find the eye first).

The colour images are all over-saturated and too vibrant. Less colour would be more powerful, especially if you worked the light and shade to simplify the image in the way the mono images are less complicated.
 
I love the first image, the diagonal zig zag from corner to corner, the separation of the elements of the tree and rocks, the tones and shades, all work so nicely.

The others are nice, but the greens a little over saturated. I don't think the sky space adds a lot, it's all in the textures in the waterfall.
 
I personally prefer the simplicity of the second. I find the other foregrounds too distracting from the subject which is the waterfall... I actually prefer another on your Flickr even more!
 
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The B&W's are the best ones here. I appreciate the first one but wonder if a hair more space LHS would help so the fourth is my favourite.
 
Really great photos, can I ask for some opinion - I was on a photography course at the weekend and the sky was similar to that in these shots- the tutor said on overcast days to avoid including the sky in shots if at all possible for the very reason we see here. My question is, for a shot like this the framing is right to include the top of the fall but it's impossible to do so without including some sky. What would you do in a situation like this? Reduce exposure on the sky only or wait for a sunny day?
 
Im no expert but I would say a bracketed shot (3 shots. One correctly exposed, one under and one over) and then merge them in photoshop. Im not confident at doing this yet and also wonder what effect that would have on the flowing water. I could have used my ND grad but that would have darkened the surrounding trees I imagine. Others can probably advise better. In the last image I have actually used the adjustment brush around the sky and trees to bring down the highlights but if the general opinion is to remove the area above the falls then I can re-edit and see how that looks. I agree with the first being a bit too tight on the left crop and will re-visit this. I'm over the moon with all the positive comments and critique though.
 
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Nicel done the mono shot win it for me
 
Earl Grey said:
My question is, for a shot like this the framing is right to include the top of the fall but it's impossible to do so without including some sky. What would you do in a situation like this? Reduce exposure on the sky only or wait for a sunny day?
Click to expand...

Opinions will vary :p

In a situation like this the sky will blow if you don't use HDR. The blown sky is completely fine as shot here, because it's a small part of the image and you don't really want much detail there to draw the eye - it's just the light source for the rest of the scene.

If you MUST have a sky that you can see, then if your sensor hasn't blown that area you might recover it in post using either the brush or a grad to reduce the highlights while keeping the leaves etc looking normal. If the sky has blown but you still need fluffy clouds & blue then consider using an application with layers and replacing the blown area with sky from another suitable image.
 
The first one is pretty interesting and BW is a great choice.

Not keen on 4 due to that branch running over the water line, and just being too dominant overall.

Colours ones aren't quite there in my view. 5 would be best of the lot, however the two problems are blown sky - clone stamp tool may help to eliminate it - and then the waterfall is very dark which fails it as the main subject. You could use local adjustments to recover shadows, but ideally a different lighting situation and stronger flow of water would be best.
 
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