River photo seem to cluttered?

[rebeler]

I was out on the hunt for fall foliage photo opp's today and found this place. Today was overcast and in my opinion a perfect day to shoot fall colors. My question is..does the river in the photo look "dirty" and take away from the overall photo? There is dead tree branches and what not in the water and I want to submit this pic for a class I am taking. I like the picture but my eyes are always drawn to the "stuff" in the water. Am I over thinking this? Please you can be brutal...I can take it. Thanks..

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3485/4016159014_c81e638461_b.jpg

[Flo]

Hi...
perhaps a crop taking the bottom most part out.and some contrast?

[OdiN1701]

If you want brutal, well I think you should try from scratch. The sky is blown out - I know it was overcast, but that usually means no good for landscapes. It would probably be excellent portrait lighting if the sky wasn't visible in the picture though.

For fall foliage - it doens't look like it has peaked - the colors are a bit dull still. Overall the image is very flat, and not much depth or dimension to it. It needs more contrast, and could use a good foreground and background subject. If the sky was blue with some interesting clouds, that would be fine for background, but still no foreground.

Good landscapes most often combine foreground, middleground and background elements to produce interest, lead your eye through the photo, etc. You have pretty much all middleground in this photo and as such it doesn't work so well IMO. Now this rule isn't always followed, and can be broken - but it's a good guide to start with.

Also, for good landscapes you generally want to photograph in the hour after sunrise and the hour before sunset. Again not a set in stone rule, but you have to be aware of how the light affects subjects when directly overhead at mid day. Usually it is not the greatest light to work with and will end up with little dimension and harsh shadows when you don't want them. But some subjects can be done at that time - it all depends.

As for the contrast deal - you should read up on the simplified zone system if you can. It's a bit early for you to foray into that I think, but if you look at this image, it doesn't really cover a lot of zones, which is why it looks flat and not as appealing.

Some other things which will help with landscape photography are a good set of graduated neutral density filters.

First and foremost, however - work on composition and exposure. I think that is where you need to improve right now, and other areas will follow.

[FlyingPhotog]

I don't find anything particularly off about the river itself but the enormous blown out sky is kind of a deal breaker for me.

[tonydee]

I'd bin it... there are hints of blue and white in the reflection of the sky, which suggests you could have done much better if you hadn't over-exposed it. Would make an absolute world of difference to have some colour there. The branches in the water are not an issue, but I agree with OdiN1701 that a lack of compositional interest factors limits the potential of this scene. Cheers, Tony

[rebeler]

Post processedhttp://farm3.static.flickr.com/2616/4015792783_5a9f387851_b.jpg

[tonydee]

The repost looks washed out and unnatural... :-/. I'd say it's beyond recovery.

[HappySnapper90]

The "processed" version looks pretty bad, colors are unnatural. The original has a nearly white sky without detail and the trees or bushes clog up the river too much. There's nothing unique in this phone to lead my eye through it except the water. Same type of bushes/trees everywhere.

[PhotosGuy]

Post processed It would be be best if you'd shot more than one exposure so you could replace the blown sky. But if you must try to save it, dupe the layer & try one of the Overlay modes to punch it up a bit.

Photoshop's Five Essential Blend Modes For Photo Editing (http://www.photoshopessentials.com/photo-editing/layer-blend-modes/)

400632

The sky will take some extra work with the selections.
Russell Brown Tips & Techniques: Advanced Masking (http://www.russellbrown.com/tips_tech.html#CS3AdvancedMasking)
The advanced tut video: http://av.adobe.com/russellbrown/ExtractSM.mov

[dkorr]

try using SE GND filter to prevent sky from blowing out and CPL to get rid of reflections in the river

[B23da]

the only thing I see bad is the overblown out sky. Nothing a little PS will fix