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Lovely pastel shades in the sky and sea, Barney. Definitely worth getting up early for. The horizon looks straight to my eye as well. The pebbles are filling the space to the left of the branches which is fine. The branches themselves look a little too close to the edge of the frame on the left though.
I agree with the comment Phil made on on of your earlier shots that it would be a good idea to get a bit lower. Those pebbles might show up better rather than being a dark mass.
It's always good to have a location you like which you can go back to and work the scene.
Best wishes
Catherine
I agree with the comment Phil made on on of your earlier shots that it would be a good idea to get a bit lower. Those pebbles might show up better rather than being a dark mass.
It's always good to have a location you like which you can go back to and work the scene.
Best wishes
Catherine
Hi Barney,
Catherine's critique is great as always but I have a couple of points that I would like to add as well.
I love the image and the scene and well done for getting up early and having a go. The best light is caught by the photographer that gets up early.
For me there is not enough colour in the sky, it is a little pastel like and I would suggest tweaking it up a little in PSE. I also think that there is a little too much tree in the foreground and it is way too close to the top of the image. Having said that, those pebbles form a great C shape and lead the eye around and into the image but the beach for me is a little dark. By all means get down low and show those pebbles, especially if they are wet but I'd find a lower foreground object like a log and move it into position rather than having all that tree.
However, the biggest problem you have here is that you grossly oversharpened the image, load it up in PSE and zoom into the glow around the tree branches, there's masses of JPEG artifacts. I would advise learning how to shoot in RAW rather than JPEG for these images. Ideally you should be shooting RAW for all images, you will be able to manage the colours better and sharpening will be more controllable.
Have a look at this and compare the colours in the sky, this image was taken at the same time as yours, just before sunrise and was enhanced in PS but it was taken in RAW.
Sunrise Image
Hope this helps
DaVeS
Catherine's critique is great as always but I have a couple of points that I would like to add as well.
I love the image and the scene and well done for getting up early and having a go. The best light is caught by the photographer that gets up early.
For me there is not enough colour in the sky, it is a little pastel like and I would suggest tweaking it up a little in PSE. I also think that there is a little too much tree in the foreground and it is way too close to the top of the image. Having said that, those pebbles form a great C shape and lead the eye around and into the image but the beach for me is a little dark. By all means get down low and show those pebbles, especially if they are wet but I'd find a lower foreground object like a log and move it into position rather than having all that tree.
However, the biggest problem you have here is that you grossly oversharpened the image, load it up in PSE and zoom into the glow around the tree branches, there's masses of JPEG artifacts. I would advise learning how to shoot in RAW rather than JPEG for these images. Ideally you should be shooting RAW for all images, you will be able to manage the colours better and sharpening will be more controllable.
Have a look at this and compare the colours in the sky, this image was taken at the same time as yours, just before sunrise and was enhanced in PS but it was taken in RAW.
Sunrise Image
Hope this helps
DaVeS
Barney,
My apologies, I just noticed that you did take the shot in RAW, sorry for the oversight.
DaVeS
My apologies, I just noticed that you did take the shot in RAW, sorry for the oversight.
DaVeS
Catherine and Dave, thanks for your comments and pointers.
It's true I did do some tweaking to the sky to give it a more pastel look with the idea of getting feedback on it. I wasn't sure if I preferred it to the original, slightly more contrasty redder sky but I think colours are down to personal opinion. I'm trying new things out in my processing with each shot to get a feel for what works and what I like.
The low viewpoint is something I will definitely try more often and next time I visit I will certainly 'work the scene' a whole lot more.
I did clone away some messy bits of wood along the left side and a couple of ships on the horizon but left the dead tree completely alone. I felt that messing with the overall shape would have taken something important away from it. I could be wrong and maybe this sort of intrusive editing is desirable?
The final point of sharpening is something I want to practice more on. I know that no in-camera sharpening takes place on RAW files so the image will benefit from this in the processing stage. I'm just not sure what works yet on general landscape shots. I will do more reading up on it but some guidance would appreciated.
Once again thanks for your comments. This is all very useful and it's making me think a lot more each time I go out or sit at the PC to edit an image.
It's true I did do some tweaking to the sky to give it a more pastel look with the idea of getting feedback on it. I wasn't sure if I preferred it to the original, slightly more contrasty redder sky but I think colours are down to personal opinion. I'm trying new things out in my processing with each shot to get a feel for what works and what I like.
The low viewpoint is something I will definitely try more often and next time I visit I will certainly 'work the scene' a whole lot more.
I did clone away some messy bits of wood along the left side and a couple of ships on the horizon but left the dead tree completely alone. I felt that messing with the overall shape would have taken something important away from it. I could be wrong and maybe this sort of intrusive editing is desirable?
The final point of sharpening is something I want to practice more on. I know that no in-camera sharpening takes place on RAW files so the image will benefit from this in the processing stage. I'm just not sure what works yet on general landscape shots. I will do more reading up on it but some guidance would appreciated.
Once again thanks for your comments. This is all very useful and it's making me think a lot more each time I go out or sit at the PC to edit an image.
