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It's been a while since I posted any images, so I went out to Voodoo this morning after dropping my eldest son at school. There were half a dozen or so surfers enjoying the big waves. Unfortunately they were too far away for me to capture with my kit lens. I would have loved getting my hands on a 300 lens, but alas my piggy bank hasn't built up sufficiently just yet...

Anyway, I took a few photos of waves crashing against the rocks. If I can get myself sufficiently motivated, I might head back out for some dawn shots tomorrow.

C & C welcome.

I like the composition of the first shot. However there is very visible sharpening artifact on the jutting out rocks on the right.

ANdrew

You said it all in your precis. You needed more reach. There is way too much rock and not enough water in these which kills the scale of the scene. YOU know they were big waves, but in isolation the waves in the shots look small. The best thing I'd do with these is to crop out a LOT of the foreground rock. The last image in particular should benefit greatly from this, especially since the surfer will become more obvious and so emphasise the scale.

Andrew
I like these images. They are beautiful seascapes and I think your composition is excellent. Whilst Stubbsy is correct in that the waves are diminished in size because of the focal legth you used...the images work for me and would look brilliant printed very large and framed.

Some great shots there. I really like the composition of the 1st one and the last.

Alex

I, too, like the first one the best, just go easy on the sharpening. While you may have missed your goal of illustrating the size of the swell, the foreground rocks certainly make for a dramatic perspective and carry the image.

Cheers
Steffen.

shakey wrote:I like the composition of the first shot. However there is very visible sharpening artifact on the jutting out rocks on the right.

Thanks mate. Here's the same image with far less sharpening applied (amt - 40%, radius - 1.0, threshold - 1; original amt - 85, radius 1.0, treshold 1)


The rock just jumped out at me, even when I was composing it in the viewfinder. I'm still at the steep end of the curve when it comes to PP and I still need to pay more attention to what I'm doing.

Thanks for the feedback.

stubbsy wrote:ANdrew

You said it all in your precis. You needed more reach. There is way too much rock and not enough water in these which kills the scale of the scene. YOU know they were big waves, but in isolation the waves in the shots look small. The best thing I'd do with these is to crop out a LOT of the foreground rock. The last image in particular should benefit greatly from this, especially since the surfer will become more obvious and so emphasise the scale.

Thanks Peter. Here's a quick crop of the photo with the surfer and I agree it does tend to emphasize the size of the waves better. I think I still prefer the composition of the original however. Having realised I didn't have enough reach to capture the surfers in action, I decided instead to get some shots of the seascape.



Here's another which shows the size of the swell even better, but I'm not really keen on the composition.

Matt. K wrote:Andrew
I like these images. They are beautiful seascapes and I think your composition is excellent. Whilst Stubbsy is correct in that the waves are diminished in size because of the focal legth you used...the images work for me and would look brilliant printed very large and framed.

Thanks Matt. That's high praise indeed coming from you

Can't say I quite agree with you though. While I like all of these shots, none of them are really good enough for a large print IMO. The composition is okay, but the light is a bit harsh for my liking.

All of these shots look washed out and nowhere near as defined as the original images I was working with. I'm capturing in Adobe RGB and then PP'ing in PS6. After re-sizing, I then save for web. Can you help me make the shots I'm posting look more like what I'm seeing on my screen?

Steffen and Alex, thanks for your comments too guys. Interestingly, my favourite is the third shot which no-one even mentioned, but it does look heaps better on my 'puter in full screen than what you guys are looking at.

ABG wrote:All of these shots look washed out and nowhere near as defined as the original images I was working with. I'm capturing in Adobe RGB and then PP'ing in PS6. After re-sizing, I then save for web. Can you help me make the shots I'm posting look more like what I'm seeing on my screen?

I always thought 'save for web' was a no-no. Not sure why, but maybe that's why they don't look like your originals.

Also for the web you may want to work the shots in SRGB rather than Adobe .

Thanks guys. I've just watched a fantastic tutorial on Radiant Vista http://www.radiantvista.com/video_tutorials/ which recommended saving for web, so I'm not sure why it'd be a no-no. It did show me that I need to change the colour profile from Adobe RGB to sRGB as drifter mentioned (something I haven't been doing and probably the cause of my issues).

I'm heading off with the family to Pambula tomorrow and will be doing a 3 day hike with my eldest son while we're away. I'll post some images when I get back home. Hopefully I'll remember to change the colour profile and see if that fixes the problems.

In the meantime, a happy Easter to all forum members. I hope everyone has a safe and relaxing holiday. Drive safely y'all.

Andrew

The reason you'll see many of us say avoid Photoshop's Save For Web is because it discards all the EXIF info from the image in order to minimise file size. Losing EXIF is a BAD THING. eg look at any member's SmugMug or PBase or whatever site. They bristle with EXIF info which is wonderfully useful to others. If these were Saved for Web from Photoshop, there'd be no EXIF to educate and illuminate us about their image.

I look forward to your Easter images. Take care and have a great time with your family.

Thanks Peter. You've enlightened me once again The say you learn something every day and I've learnt quite a bit today.

I'll repeat the mantra while I'm away - don't use save for web, save for web bad

Thanks also for your kind thoughts. They are of course reciprocated.

ABG wrote:I'm heading off with the family to Pambula tomorrow

Hey,

That's my neck of the woods!
Have a great time. There are some great photo ops around there.

shakey wrote:Hey,

That's my neck of the woods!
Have a great time. There are some great photo ops around there.

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