Looking for opinions please ...

[jimmyosram]

This is a photo of a stream we had at the bottom of our garden while on holiday last week.
I've avoided the HDRI route this time as I do want a natural looking image.

I'm keen to get your feedback on how it looks to you all, and if you would change anything.

Cheers

[Steve Bristol]

Hi Jimmy

Good shot, like the composition and framing with the trees either side and the river leading the eye through to the bridge and the tree and the slightly darker sky behind it.

I think the grass on the river bank looks a little over exposed, may be some work there may help focus the eye along the river even more.

But nice shot

Steve.

[GeoffWessex]

Nice view but I agree about the over-exposure. Out of interest, I downloaded it and ran it through Adobe Camera Raw and came to the conclusion that the grass and sky are over-exposed by nearly two stops (so the camera's metering may have been over-influenced by the dark water).

Reducing the Brightness with an Adjustment Layer worked well - specially when using a layer mask to bring the water and other shadows back. An even better solution is to open the image in ACR, making adjustments there to give a more saturated and darker grass and sky. Open it in PS or Elements and save with a new name. Then open the original again in ACR and give a little more exposure, until the shadows and stream are looking good. Open that, drag the first saved image on top of it and use a layer mask to bring the darker areas back to the brighter layer beneath.

[MattUK]

Nice shot Jimmy - perhaps clear up or crop out the foliage bottom left, to avoid distraction?

[ianpinion]

Great composition Jimmy as usual, though I have to agree with Steve and Geoff that the sky and grass is overexposed. I'd follow Geoff's advice on evening up the exposure values and use the healing brush to remove that foliage to which Matt refers.

[deena]

Nice shot Jimmy. I really like the composition, and I love the little bridge over the river. Maybe I would have made this more of a feature. IMO Im no sure about the tree trunk on the right hand side. This was taken on your holiday, so it's unlikely that you can go back and re shoot . But if you were to go back and were faced with the same lighting conditions how could you fix the uneven exposure 'in camera'?? I'm thinking a ND grad used at an angle. I dont know if this is the right answer. Anybody???