Topic: Breaking Storm, Ma'ili (Read 4547 times)

jasonrandolph · « **on:** July 29, 2009, 11:42:38 am »

I'm blessed to be able to walk across the street and find this in front of me. I find the ever-changing skies to be a great challenge to me to turn it into a good composition. How did I do with this one?

JeffKohn · « **Reply #1 on:** July 29, 2009, 12:43:06 pm »

Beautiful sky, the colors are nice, but not over-the-top. I like the curving line created by wet part of the sand, and the way it picks up some of the sky's color on the right. You've captured some nice waves to add a sense of motion to the image, as well. You managed exposure well, I'm guessing this a blend of some sort but the result doesn't look unnatural or over-processed.

For me there's a little too much dry sand at the bottom of the image, I think you could crop some of that away to put the focus more on the water and sky. That one little wave/eddy that's creeping up onto the sand is also a little too centrally located, which I feel makes the composition more static than it would be if it were off-centered.

jasonrandolph · « **Reply #2 on:** July 29, 2009, 01:01:33 pm »

Quote from: JeffKohn

Beautiful sky, the colors are nice, but not over-the-top. I like the curving line created by wet part of the sand, and the way it picks up some of the sky's color on the right. You've captured some nice waves to add a sense of motion to the image, as well. You managed exposure well, I'm guessing this a blend of some sort but the result doesn't look unnatural or over-processed.

For me there's a little too much dry sand at the bottom of the image, I think you could crop some of that away to put the focus more on the water and sky. That one little wave/eddy that's creeping up onto the sand is also a little too centrally located, which I feel makes the composition more static than it would be if it were off-centered.

Jeff:

Thanks for the critique. This was actually a straight shot processed in Lightroom. I agree that it does seem too centered. I tried composing differently, but the sky would suffer IMHO. I appreciate your comments.

alainbriot · « **Reply #3 on:** July 29, 2009, 01:06:55 pm »

Nice image. I agree with Jeff's comment about cropping the bottom part (extra sand). After cropping the image is too panoramic for my taste so I restructured the format. I also corrected the contrast and density which I found too dark and corrected some of the colors. Here's my interpretation together with the original for easy comparison:

cmi · « **Reply #4 on:** July 29, 2009, 03:08:53 pm »

I was going to say, beautiful!, but somehow a little bit empty, and a tad too dark. Alan Briot's crop and processing solves that. I consider the processing as a rough guide, the colors are a bit odd and its a tad too bright. But still in this form, it adds a focus, a graphical appereance to the image, and I like that.

Christian

alainbriot · « **Reply #5 on:** July 29, 2009, 03:19:22 pm »

Quote from: Christian Miersch

I was going to say, beautiful!, but somehow a little bit empty, and a tad too dark. Alan Briot's crop and processing solves that. I consider the processing as a rough guide, the colors are a bit odd and its a tad too bright. But still in this form, it adds a focus, a graphical appereance to the image, and I like that.

Christian

Christian,

I totally agree with your comment that my processing is "a rough guide". It is! I did it quickly working on a jpeg. I would need much longer and the original Raw file to create a high quality file.

cmi · « **Reply #6 on:** July 29, 2009, 03:22:48 pm »

Quote from: alainbriot

Christian,

I totally agree with your comment that my processing is "a rough guide". It is! I did it quickly working on a jpeg. I would need much longer and the original Raw file to create a high quality file.

Alain,

I like that you did it so quick'n'dirty, I wish I could see it that fast!

jasonrandolph · « **Reply #7 on:** July 29, 2009, 05:03:57 pm »

Alain:

I like your interpretation. Thanks for the constructive comments and example. I will definitely be doing some more tweaking. Thank you all.

alainbriot · « **Reply #8 on:** July 29, 2009, 08:41:12 pm »

Quote from: jasonrandolph

Alain:

I like your interpretation. Thanks for the constructive comments and example. I will definitely be doing some more tweaking. Thank you all.

Jason,

You are welcome.

Alain

customminds · « **Reply #9 on:** July 30, 2009, 04:39:52 pm »

definitely a beautiful sky capture.

Wish I was there right now. :-)

RSL · « **Reply #10 on:** July 30, 2009, 05:05:48 pm »

Jason, I hate to disagree with Alain because I really respect his work -- but, it seems to me that the crop and contrast and density adjustments turn a seriously threatening storm into an oncoming wimpy drizzle. The original had real danger in it. The revision makes you want to run out and play in the surf, but you can't play in the surf much because a good part of the shore is gone. Sorry Alain, but I thought the original was quite good.

jasonrandolph · « **Reply #11 on:** July 31, 2009, 01:14:37 am »

Quote from: RSL

Jason, I hate to disagree with Alain because I really respect his work -- but, it seems to me that the crop and contrast and density adjustments turn a seriously threatening storm into an oncoming wimpy drizzle. The original had real danger in it. The revision makes you want to run out and play in the surf, but you can't play in the surf much because a good part of the shore is gone. Sorry Alain, but I thought the original was quite good.

Thanks Russ. I enjoy getting the different perspective. The sky was definitely foreboding when I was shooting it, but I'll have to carefully consider where I want to go with it from here.

Author Topic: Breaking Storm, Ma'ili (Read 4547 times)