View over waterfall at O'Reilly's (Lamington N.P.)

[Finch]

Since I have just proposed a minimeet at O'Reilly's (Lamington National Park) I thought I'd post a landscape shot taken there some time ago to give you a taste!.

Critique and comments welcome

Cheers

Michael

[mudder]

Looks like a wonderful spot, I can just see myself perched on the edge of the cliff, shooting back towards the water getting that rock in the middle of the water as a foreground item... Who's gonna hang on to me though???

Like the sun poking through the trees, that's nicely placed... Wonderful view/background, bit busy though, would try to minimise the scene...

The bright light has made you work hard for your shot too, looks like the lighting was fairly harsh which makes waterfall shots very difficult...

[marcotrov]

Firstly the things I like:- The shot has great potential Michael and given the circumstances you have done quite a good job.
I like the way the little waterfall takes the eye down and around to follow the valleys winding course. I also like the way you use the tress and shrubs around the foreground edge to frame the valley entrance. Lastly I like the perspective.

Now what I think could make the image better:- Whilst I like the star pattern light of the sun poking through the leaves I feel that the image suffers too much glare, therefore is flat and lacking contrast. It also seems to lack a little critical sharpness possibly from the glare/flare combination.

Depending on whether you are facing west or east, let's assume east, then I would have taken the shot 15-20mins earlier a few minutes before the sun was to make its appearance allowing the sky to show off the rich blue hues and softer pastel tones of the early morning rays. I would (if using RAW) have probably blended 2 exposures to render highlights and shadows so that you could balance the exposure. Probably i would have also kept a UV filter on to reduce what residual glare there may have been. If you were facing west then the reverse would apply but same process.
cheers
marco

[big pix]

Great shot....... If I can get a one or two like this I would be happy.......

[Finch]

Macro,

Thanks for critique - I found it very useful. Problem with the glare etc was that any earlier and the light was too harsh and only minutes later, the sun had virtually set and scene was too dark. I shot this using my 35mm gear and have scanned it without any Photoshop, except capture sharpening. Will be worth playing around with to see what can be achieved.

I tried to compose the image so that your eye will follow the scene into the valley and the sun flare behind the trees was intentional.

Thanks again

Michael

[Willy wombat]

Great result from tricky lighting conditions. Perhaps a little bracketting would have helped you out, but i think this shot is very nice nevertheless. Well done.