DPChallenge: A Digital Photography Contest You are not logged in. (log in or register
 
Challenge Entries
Portfolio Images
This image is not part of a public portfolio.
Curtis Falls
Curtis Falls
surfdabbler


Photograph Information Photographer's Comments
Challenge: Free Study 2008-03 (Advanced Editing VII)
Camera: Canon EOS-400D Rebel XTi
Lens: Canon EF-S 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6 II
Location: Curtis Falls, Mt Tambourine
Date: Mar 24, 2008
Aperture: f/22
ISO: 100
Shutter: 1.3s
Galleries: Landscape, Nature
Date Uploaded: Mar 31, 2008

My wife gave me a weekend day off from the family (thanks honey!), so I went for my first bushwalk in a couple of years now. I had a great trek around Mt Tambourine and down to Curtis falls. Spent an hour clambouring over slippery wet rocks looking for different vantage points on the falls, and in the end, the best view was from the observation platform. :) I had another shot of the rainforest that I like better than this waterfall, but it was a 3-shot panorama, so I can't enter it.

Editing is mostly lots of manual dodge, burn and multiply. Also a little selective colour and saturation, minor cloning, blurred overlay and Luko sharpening. I definitely sold my soul to the DPC voters here in an attempt to goin a better score. Personally, I would prefer to leave more detail in the shadows, but I decided to go all out for score here. I wonder if it will work. :)

Scores have been all over the place lately, but my predicted score for this is over 6.5. Dream score over 7.1.

Statistics
Place: 52 out of 500
Avg (all users): 6.3904
Avg (commenters): 8.5000
Avg (participants): 6.3208
Avg (non-participants): 6.5750
Views since voting: 1165
Views during voting: 235
Votes: 146
Comments: 9
Favorites: 2 (view)


Please log in or register to add your comments!

AuthorThread
04/10/2008 03:21:05 PM
I think this photo is great and fully deserves the score it got (even if I did bend the rules to let you in ;-) )

The details are lovely and soft on the water and I do like the way the light falls on the pic, especially on the leaves behind the waterfall.

I also like the waterfall itself, a nice slow shutter speed giving that silky effect. Great work!
  Photographer found comment helpful.
04/09/2008 11:30:45 PM
For one the orange color in the water, the green of the leaves and the white of the falls all really compliment each other very well. I like the use of the 1.3s shutter speed as it makes the falls seem like there's more water AND the pool is smooth without any ripples. It must not have been too windy down in where you were shooting because the leaves don't show any motion for a 1+ second shutter.

Sorry I don't have too much of a critique on what to improve. Overall it's a perfect photo, now all you need to do is insert a little "wow factor" (I'm not yet sure how) to push you over a 7+ score. Great photo. -BB
  Photographer found comment helpful.
04/09/2008 12:06:10 PM
This was a 6 for me. I really like the water and the green. The reflection on the water is great too. I think the log is very distracting to me, as well as the very bottom of the photo. My biggest problem is that there's nothing to really capture my attention, nothing that really stands out. It's just a pretty picture of a waterfall.
  Photographer found comment helpful.
04/09/2008 03:14:17 AM
I really like this photo and I gave it a 9 in voting. I like the sharpness and I do like the bright greens unlike karmat.

The brown water does stand out quite a bit compared to the rest of the photo but when my eye is drawn there by the color I like that I can see the details under the water. There is more to explore there and I find that interesting.
  Photographer found comment helpful.
04/08/2008 03:19:25 PM
I really, really like the composition in this one. It isn't as straightforward as a "textbook" example, but it is still well-balanced and allows the eyes to wander around in the frame, and feels complete.

To me, the bright, bright greens are a bit off-putting. Everything looks so calm and subdued, except for the greens -- especially in the center of the frame. If that is what you were going for, it works. I know dpc seems to like the super-saturated green look (I call it drAchoo green), but it is kinda off-putting to me.

The other thing I noticed, and it may be just me, is that some of the rocks around the base of the fall looks a bit pixelated/over-sharpened/out of focus. It is not bad, but it is noticeable, and since our eyes tend to rest at the base of the falls, it may have made some of the voters feel that it was a touch out of focus.

Still, this is an absolutely beautiful shot.
  Photographer found comment helpful.
04/08/2008 11:18:01 AM
It's not the log that bothers me (although it does pull focus), it's the brown stuff under the water to the right of it. It almost seems to be a shot of it's own added on to the waterfall shot.

What if you sliced this down the center (or just to the right of center - maybe including all or part of that central fern?) and then cropped a bit off the bottom?

Just a thought.
  Photographer found comment helpful.
04/08/2008 06:42:11 AM
This may sound odd, but I think in this particular FS you may have been hurt a bit by the fact it's a landscape of sorts - note that there were no landscapes in the top ten this time. Who knows why. Still, a top 10% finish in a free study of 500 entries is pretty darn good - score may not have been where you'd have liked it, but the placement is very good. You've handled the composition well - feels quite balanced to me - and have done a good job with the light, both in exposure and processing. I'm wondering if a crop to take out part of the foreground log would lessen its presence - it's a very strong element in the shot - but I'm not sure what that would do to the overall balance. Besides, I like the growth on it. And I do not see this as overprocessed - the processing seems to be well-handled without overdoing it.
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 Comments Made During the Challenge
04/01/2008 10:14:35 AM
What can I say. Everything works. 8
  Photographer found comment helpful.
04/01/2008 01:29:36 AM
Paradise
  Photographer found comment helpful.


Home - Challenges - Community - League - Photos - Cameras - Lenses - Learn - Prints! - Help - Terms of Use - Privacy - Top ^
DPChallenge, and website content and design, Copyright © 2001-2024 Challenging Technologies, LLC.
All digital photo copyrights belong to the photographers and may not be used without permission.
Current Server Time: 04/24/2024 03:23:03 PM EDT.