Creek at Trestle 17

B+W 8X ND Filter with a Lee CPL

not so bad composition but the whole picture looks to be out of focus ?

i'm not sure what you were trying to do with that shot

rick_reno wrote in post #14667638
i'm not sure what you were trying to do with that shot

I like to shoot waterfalls and creeks of Western NC as a hobby. I have been practicing with ND filters which I am new to.

My shot selection was limited - trapped between the bush on the right and a Trestle member not shown.

I tried several positions ans the camera kept wanting to focus on the bush in foreground to the right. I tried stopping down for a wider DOF. Apparently that did not help.

I'm just looking for some constructive feedback to improve these types of shots.

Thanks.

You have a little bit of light in the background, which is helpful, but there isn't quite enough of it to draw the eye back there very strongly (which would help emphasize the sense of depth in the image). The creek itself also seems rather far away and therefore seems more like a background than a subject. It helps if you can find a big element to serve as an anchor/subject for the frame, such as a big log, rock, cluster of leaves, fish...anything, really--just something that stands out and gives the eye a place to rest between explorations of the frame. For example, here's a photo I took where I used a big rock as the anchor and timed the image so that light in the background would draw the eye deeper into the image: link. It can also be more exciting to get the viewer right down in the water, if possible, like this photo: link. I hope these examples make helpful comparison images for you.

Anyway, keep at it and see how well you can get the light and the vantage point to work well together. Sometimes a view that looks uninteresting in the morning will look really magical in the late afternoon and vice versa. Timing is just as important as shutter speed and composition when it comes to photographing creeks and rivers.