Black Water

[Steve S]

Still playing with b&w. F/11---1/20s--iso 100--10mm

[Donald]

Steve

Two points to ponder:

1. I'm not sure that there's a sufficiently strong focal point. I find my eye wandering around the image rather than being taken to something more specific, again as opposed to Sepia Landscape where the eye was taken through the picture.
2. All my attention is kept in the lower third of the frame: between the ripples in the water coming in from the right-hand-side and the line between water and snow on the left-hand bank. I feel the top two-thirds of the frame is a bit bland and flat. Maybe if you had moved the midtones slider to get a bit more contrast between the trees and the snow-covered ground?

[Steve S]

Steve

Two points to ponder:

1. I'm not sure that there's a sufficiently strong focal point. I find my eye wandering around the image rather than being taken to something more specific, again as opposed to Sepia Landscape where the eye was taken through the picture.
2. All my attention is kept in the lower third of the frame: between the ripples in the water coming in from the right-hand-side and the line between water and snow on the left-hand bank. I feel the top two-thirds of the frame is a bit bland and flat. Maybe if you had moved the midtones slider to get a bit more contrast between the trees and the snow-covered ground?

Thanks for your input donald.................strange observation in that you think the creek is flowing the opposite direction. It is really flowing left to right.(straight at you) I may have to start considering how i position the flow of the creek in the frame.

[Donald]

strange observation in that you think the creek is flowing the opposite direction. It is really flowing left to right.(straight at you)

That is interesting and says something about the way we 'read' images.

When you look again and see the smooth water breaking into ripples, it's obvious that it must be flowing left to right. Yet when I was looking at the image, as opposed to studying the technicalities of the waterflow, I jumped to the assumption it was flowing right to left. What made me do that?