The Ole' Swimmin' Hole

[FrankMi]

A friend and I went out for a photoshoot and we both got pictures of this river. He is just starting to learn Photoshop so I did some basic cleanup and posted it here for your comments and suggestions so that he could get a feel for the kind of help that is available on the CiC forum.

[Stinky]

Very nice. Nice colors and textures.

[Dave Humphries]

A friend and I went out for a photoshoot and we both got pictures of this river. ~ and I posted it here for your comments and suggestions so that he could get a feel for the kind of help that is available on the CiC forum.

No pressure then

It has several attractive features (and of course is nicely processed), but I am struggling to identify a subject in this composition.

Going in a cirlce we have;
a kind of beach area lower right
some nice ripples on water's surface lower left
upper left we have the subsiding river bank, complete with fallen trees and a reflection
upper right is a muddy cliff, with some good texture, plus leaves and driftwood below

Perhaps what looks like a plank (right center), as the solitary manmade object, is the subject?

Looking at the histogram; some of that beach detail may have been lost in over exposure?

Hope that helps,

[Steve S]

Frank, i have to agree with dave on this one. The mechanics of the shot look good(very nice lighting as well), but i don't see any real subject. I want to see what is above and to the left of the ledge. It looks like this is the bottom right 1/4 of the entire image, if that makes sense.

[epmi314]

Let's start with the good stuff...
The image is nice and sharp.
The water is great. The color, clarity, reflections, etc.
The washed out bank with the flora and dead trees hanging over are also interesting.
The exposure also looks good to me save the issue Dave mentioned.

Where I think it could be improved...
The whitish shore on the right seems to stand out a bit and as Dave mentioned it looks to be a tick overexposed.
I find that images of river shorelines can be a bit busy without a primary subject. In this case, I would have like a perspective that incorporated the overhanging tree or the tree in the water in a more prominate fashion.

All that said, it's a really nice image. Love to see more!

[Geoff F]

I think I would consider a very slight crop to remove part of the right and bottom; but overall a good shot.

[Donald]

I wondered about the chosen shooting position; i.e. and the resultant composition.

I'm guessing that the photographer was in a standing position. It feels like and image that could have benefited from getting low down; i.e. one that needed the wearing of the oldest/dirtiest trousers/pants you could find, so that you could get down on your knees or you b...! And, yes, get wet if needs be.

But I also wondered what scope there was to take a few sideways steps to the right - to get the bank as a strong line going from front to back in the image, rather than something cutting across from right-to-left.

There's certainly a powerful image in there. The contrasting textures of water, foliage, sand make it an exciting prospect. For me, it's about hunting out that shot.

[FrankMi]

Thank you all for the comments! Much appreciated.

Dave, I see the deep water of the 'swimming hole' as the subject but there are certainly other possibilities here. If it is the swimming hole, then cropping off about 1/3rd (or less?) of the foreground would make that more obvious but at the loss of most of the beach and ripples in the water. That would change the dynamics of the shot and may lose some of its appeal.

Steve, I had cropped the right side but when I cropped further the the attention started to really get focused on the bank and less on the beach and water. To me it seemed to be less of a swimming hole that way.

Donald, I would love to have gotten lower and may have been able to lower the camera position somewhat but I am standing at the end of an elevated walkway that was built out over the lake to view up the river that flows into it. It is possible to go around to a location where I could access the beach but the position would be significantly to the right of where I was. I may try that next time.