Bridal Veil Falls, Utah

PappyRoot

I am little bit nervous about this but I wanted to let you all know where I am in the beginning. Please do not forget I plan on getting much better. I enrolled with New York Institute of Photography, (NYIP). I know I will get better. Please, Please give me all the advise you have. I want to learn and become so much better. So, without further interuptions... Here is my first images I am sharing with you.

GULP......

Bridal Veil Falls, Provo Canyon, Provo, Utah


Zions National Park, Utah


Ok, question.. How come one image is larger then the other????


Well there are two of the many I have. Again please be honest with me and help me become better.

Love and Prayers
Darryl :rofl

PappyRoot

I forgot to mention I did dally a little with post editing with these.

slflash

Pappy,
It is always nerve wracking posting something for people to critique. Great job. The first one is a nice angle, but the sun flare is bothersome. I really like the angle though. The second one is great! I love the way the road leads your eye through the whole picture. Nice job. I look forward to seeing more of your stuff as you progress.

PappyRoot

slflash wrote: »

Pappy,
It is always nerve wracking posting something for people to critique. Great job. The first one is a nice angle, but the sun flare is bothersome. I really like the angle though. The second one is great! I love the way the road leads your eye through the whole picture. Nice job. I look forward to seeing more of your stuff as you progress.

Sheila ,
Thank you so much for your kind words. I am curious tho, why do you feel the sun flare is bothersome? That is what I liked about it. Because I am colored blind but in this image I can see some of a a rainbow effect. So, how can I make it more appealing? I hope you do not think I am being defensive because my intent is to learn.

I love the path also. Like you said, I like how the image takes you on that path and is inviting. Sort of saying "Walk with me and enjoy." But I feel it is missing something. Do you have any suggestions for that as well?

Again, Thank you so so much

Darryl

Crokey

Your enthusiasm really shines through Darryl, and that will take you a very long way, very quickly on your journey to become better at seeing, which is the real goal here. The first picture is kind of small to make judgments on, but when composing an image look for the brightest spots and points of greatest contrast. These are where the human eye are strongly drawn to, and if they aren't where you want the viewer to look, then you've just introduced a massively distracting, and usually destructive element into the composition. If you look at the first picture, you can see that the point of strongest interest for the human eye is perversely that bright corner of sky in the top left. This has the added detriment that it leads the eye out of the frame, a big no no. Check for distracting bright spots or areas of strong color that aren't conducive to your vision, and take a look around the edge of the viewfinder frame for distracting elements. This essentially means, in the beginning at least, stopping before you bring the camera to your eye and deciding what you want to say, and then looking around the viewfinder to see if the elements in it are conducive to that message.
The second photo suffers from a similar confusion of your message. I understand that you want that path to lead the viewer into the image, and it is a success, but once again, notice how other elements essentially trip-up the viewer during that journey. The bright area in the foreground keeps pulling the eye back out of the image and prevents further exploration. This is one reason why vignetting has become so popular again after lens manufacturers have spent so much time and effort to remove it from their products! That area also lacks any interest, and the dirt to the right is clearly out of focus! It's usually very detrimental to an image's success if the foreground is blurred, especially in landscape shots designed to bring the viewer on a journey. I'm also sure that if you had thought about what you wanted, you would have found a more attractive area of path to photograph, something that would give your audience a reward for viewing it. It's been said many times that painting is the art of adding elements to build the whole, whereas photography is the art of subtracting elements from the whole.
I really look forward to your next images, and don't at all be disheartened by slip-ups in the beginning. You can be sure that even greats like Marc Muench have hard-drives full of outright junk(at least that's what I like to tell myself ).

PappyRoot

Crokey wrote: »

Your enthusiasm really shines through Darryl, and that will take you a very long way, very quickly on your journey to become better at seeing, which is the real goal here. The first picture is kind of small to make judgments on, but when composing an image look for the brightest spots and points of greatest contrast. These are where the human eye are strongly drawn to, and if they aren't where you want the viewer to look, then you've just introduced a massively distracting, and usually destructive element into the composition. If you look at the first picture, you can see that the point of strongest interest for the human eye is perversely that bright corner of sky in the top left. This has the added detriment that it leads the eye out of the frame, a big no no. Check for distracting bright spots or areas of strong color that aren't conducive to your vision, and take a look around the edge of the viewfinder frame for distracting elements. This essentially means, in the beginning at least, stopping before you bring the camera to your eye and deciding what you want to say, and then looking around the viewfinder to see if the elements in it are conducive to that message.
The second photo suffers from a similar confusion of your message. I understand that you want that path to lead the viewer into the image, and it is a success, but once again, notice how other elements essentially trip-up the viewer during that journey. The bright area in the foreground keeps pulling the eye back out of the image and prevents further exploration. This is one reason why vignetting has become so popular again after lens manufacturers have spent so much time and effort to remove it from their products! That area also lacks any interest, and the dirt to the right is clearly out of focus! It's usually very detrimental to an image's success if the foreground is blurred, especially in landscape shots designed to bring the viewer on a journey. I'm also sure that if you had thought about what you wanted, you would have found a more attractive area of path to photograph, something that would give your audience a reward for viewing it. It's been said many times that painting is the art of adding elements to build the whole, whereas photography is the art of subtracting elements from the whole.
I really look forward to your next images, and don't at all be disheartened by slip-ups in the beginning. You can be sure that even greats like Marc Muench have hard-drives full of outright junk(at least that's what I like to tell myself ).

Colin,
My goodness sir, your thoughts are so wonderful. Thank you so much. I have few questions for you. When I saw the ray surronding the waterfall I knew I wanted it in my shot. I had heard about rule of 1/3 so I decided to place that in to the right of image or the last 1/3. So, in your opinion, how could I have showm my viewers that wonderful color pattern from the sun? Again, I am color blind so when I actually saw some color there I knew I just had to comit that to my camera. As far as the second one I have to agree with you 100%. Do you think that I could of cropped out some of the distracting and still been able to convey that beatuiful path that I saw?

I do not think I could get disheartened if I keep in mind that we are always learning. I had a Sgt in the Air Force who said something that I have come to live by. He said, " The time you think you have learned it all, please step aside because there is always something to learn from every experience and you waste my time by not taking each opportunity to learn." So, I promise I will eat up what is said, I will filter and I will continue. Also, with that saying in mind from my Sgt long ago, I say I do not have a hard drive full of "junk" but a hard drive full of learning opportunities.

Again, thank you so much for your support and helpful words of encouragement. I look forward in sharing with you all as I only get better.

Your new friend,

Darryl J. Root

PappyRoot

Here is a larger version of the falls so you can look better at it.

Crokey

Well, with regards to the waterfall, at the time of capture you could have zoomed in enough to exclude that bright portion of sky in the top left. Maybe even a few steps to your left would have accomplished the same thing, but that might not have been possible without taking a dunk in some water! Post-processing wise, just try and crop down from the top enough to remove that part of the sky. Coincidentally, it will create a better parity in the size and shape of the halo and the shape of the trees in the bottom left. Also, just try pushing the black point in a bit, the slider simply labeled, conveniently, BLACKS in lightroom.
The cropped version of the second one has less distracting elements, but now the image is about a fence and a tree, which has gained more significance than in the original because it is placed centrally. The effect of a path leading the viewer is gone and I don't think this was your original intention. Digital is great, it lets you do things and take images that were impossible only 10 years ago, but there is no "unsuck filter", to quote David DuChemin(a great photographer whose work and blog you should check out. He also has some excellent E-Books that run the gamut from primers in composition to how to find your "voice" and are very reasonably priced). Take what you've learned from your mistakes and apply that the next time rather than trying to undo those mistakes in software, because that, at best, can only make poor photos less poor!

slflash

Darryl,
For me the sun flare is just distracting. I do like how it does look like an upside down rainbow though. Maybe if in post processing you make it darker and hi it with some contrast that would help. What is great about photography and art is that it is subjective to the artist's opinion. So if you like it then stick by it. Doesn't mean that anyone else's opinion is correct. I would like to see it when you hit the contrast up and maybe a bit more saturation. As far as the road shot maybe more saturation on the foreground.


Sheila

PappyRoot wrote: »

Sheila ,
Thank you so much for your kind words. I am curious tho, why do you feel the sun flare is bothersome? That is what I liked about it. Because I am colored blind but in this image I can see some of a a rainbow effect. So, how can I make it more appealing? I hope you do not think I am being defensive because my intent is to learn.

I love the path also. Like you said, I like how the image takes you on that path and is inviting. Sort of saying "Walk with me and enjoy." But I feel it is missing something. Do you have any suggestions for that as well?

Again, Thank you so so much

Darryl