Tidal Sand

[garyhill]

The attached image was taken recently not far from my home just after sunrise. The tide was coming in rapidly and within 5 minutes the sand was completley gone. I welcome any comments or suggestions for improvements.

Cheers,

Gary

[louoates]

Glad you had those 5 minutes. Very nice capture of all the elements and well executed. My only suggestion is to re-think the emphasis on the major elements. The sand pattern is the star but I'm divided as to what other element is next to view; sky, ocean, or tidal pool. After a bit of study my preference, after the sand,  is to the ocean, then the sky, then the tidal pool. To my eye that's accomplished by a slight cropping of the left side, reducing some of the pool area. The interest on the sand is instantly intensified and the tidal pool interest is transferred to the ocean.

[Harald L]

Glad you had those 5 minutes. Very nice capture of all the elements and well executed. My only suggestion is to re-think the emphasis on the major elements. The sand pattern is the star but I'm divided as to what other element is next to view; sky, ocean, or tidal pool. After a bit of study my preference, after the sand,  is to the ocean, then the sky, then the tidal pool. To my eye that's accomplished by a slight cropping of the left side, reducing some of the pool area. The interest on the sand is instantly intensified and the tidal pool interest is transferred to the ocean.

+1

And perhaps the trees are a tad over-processed. Just distracting from the fine sand pattern.

Harald

[francois]

This is complex image as outlined in the first post from louoates. My eyes seem to follow the same path: sand then sky then water on the right and finally the tidal pool. I must say that I like it a lot like that but I'd like to see it with some cropping on the left…

Anyway, it's a wonderful scene and you probably only had little time to grab it!

[David Eckels]

I agree with the other comments, but I have to say, "Good God, what a lovely shot!"

[Eric Myrvaagnes]

I think it's quite fine as is. In my view, the suggested croppings would make it feel unbalanced, since the scene has a strong natural symmetry.


(Edited to correct typo, before the spelling police arrest me.)

[fike]

For me this is an image that just keeps on giving.  When I first look at it I found my eye drawn to the receding lines of the sandy isthmus and the clouds.  This drew my eye out to the horizon.  My eyes danced there a bit and then came back to enjoy the wonderful textures of the foreground sand.  There is a lot for me to like there.  I don't find the trees objectionable in their sharpness (or anything else).  The have some hard direct light on them (from the right, I guess), so that appearance is to be expected.  I like how the image resists symmetry even while having a generally symmetrical appearance.

[fredbruckman]

Beautiful image! The only thing I would try to see how it looked is to lessen the sharpening and/or clarity a bit. Someone else mentioned the trees, the transition between trees and sky may be a bit crisp, and the sand itself may look processed i think I see a few to many edges on close examination. This is a beautiful image as is, but on close inspection it looks like it has been processed. I try to avoid that look as a rule, but as always the best rendering is in the eye of the creator.

[garyhill]

Thank you all for the comments and feedback. I initailly was only luke warm to this shot. As some have commented it looks a bit overprocessed and that was my initial thoughts as well despite the fact that I have done very little to the original raw file. The photo was shot with a grad ND too keep the sky from getting too bright. The only processing after this is to drag the black point on the histogram in Canon DPP to the right so that it is close to the base of the histogram. After this was some mild sharpening (Smart sharpen 50% at 1.1 radius). That being said most people I have shown it too seem to like it. It will be interesting see if it sells well locally as a fine art print.

Thanks again.

Gary

[Ed Blagden]

Gary

I think this is a great composition and I love the light.  I would be surprised if this does not sell well.

A couple of minor nits: first, the sky looks a bit crunchy, possibly as a result of the global sharpening which works very well for the sand but not for the sky.  Maybe it looks better in print but it bothers me on the monitor.  Maybe use a grad filter in LR (if you have it) to reduce clarity and / or sharpening in the sky.  Second the sea: I can't see your exif data but suspect that it was a short exposure - it might have been better to use a longer exposure to soften up the waves a bit.

But those are very minor nits: overall it is a lovely image and composition and I would be very happy to hang that one on my wall.

Ed