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Archive 2015 · Waves!

  
 
Andre Labonte
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p.1 #1 · p.1 #1 · Waves!


CC Appreciated

1
https://farm9.staticflickr.com/8737/17013648101_8d7fd742e3_o.jpg

2
https://farm8.staticflickr.com/7601/16392120524_eb07210c7b_o.jpg

3
https://farm9.staticflickr.com/8725/16988549946_4230da9a11_o.jpg

4
https://farm8.staticflickr.com/7645/17014539265_f4b44884ab_o.jpg

5
https://farm8.staticflickr.com/7603/17013654441_087b010578_o.jpg



Apr 19, 2015 at 10:21 PM
JimFox
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p.1 #2 · p.1 #2 · Waves!


Hey Andre,

It's great to see you out shooting at the beach. My favorites are #2 and 3, you caught the wave curling really nicely. But 2 things on both. 1st, pull down on the midtones a little more, it will deepen the darker area's and provide a nice little contrast boost and give the shot a little more pop. Now the 2nd thing actually applies to all of the shots, watch your histogram you are blowing highlights on these. It would have been better to have underexposed more, and in the Raw conversion pull more detail out of the shadows. Also, be sure to be using a polarizer, that will be your best friend to cut back on the sun reflecting off of the water.

Now #1, I like the side shot you got of the curl, but crop it tighter, and again pull back on the midtones, darkening them slightly to help bring out more details of that curl.

#4 and 5 frankly don't do anything for me. #4 is just jumbled water and doesn't provide any real visual attraction. Curls work so much better. On #5, the whole bottom of the shot is out of focus which hurts the shot a lot. Perhaps you could crop some off the bottom, but the wave in the background is not well defined and just not that interesting.

I hope that helps,

Jim



Apr 20, 2015 at 03:09 AM
Andre Labonte
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p.1 #3 · p.1 #3 · Waves!


Hi Jim,

Thanks for the great CC.

Regarding #1, 2 and 3, I think you are right on all counts ... I will rework these. My PP skills are lacking and much more geared to people, not landscapes. You have given me a great starting point. FYI - I actually increased the exposure on #2 & #3 in post ... the originals were darker. Also, as for the Sun on the water, I was shooting a 300 f/2.8 and I don't have a polarizer for it ... seems like it may be an investment I need to make.

Regarding # 4 & 5, those were experiments in going more abstract and the exposure was brought up 1.3 stops in post to give it the washed-out contrast look. From your reaction, it did not have the effect I was looking for.

At least now I can focus on the three interesting shots and process them in a completely different way. I'll repost later this week.

Cheers,
Andre



Apr 20, 2015 at 05:25 PM
JimFox
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p.1 #4 · p.1 #4 · Waves!


Hey Andre,

It's great to see you out trying new things. As for #2 and 3, don't bring up the exposure, the best way is to bring up the shadows. That will protect the highlights from blowing out. Also if I recall you are using Capture NX2? If so, then in scenes like this where there is no sky, don't be afraid to use a stronger DLighting setting to bring out more DR. The best way to deal with it is to use a luminosity mask in Photoshop where you basically do the double Raw conversion. One for the highlights and one for the darker areas and then blend it with a mask based off the highlights, this then pulls through the non overexposed sections into the blown out highlights, thus preserving them, but brightening the whole overall scene for you. That gives you the widest DR on the image, and then from there you can pull back on the midtones to add contrast, or you can use the contrast adjustment itself just watching to make sure the highlights don't get blown.

I hope that makes sense.

With #4 and 5, it was a weak composition more than your playing in post to make more of an abstract. Try the same thing later when you can get your shutter speed down to the 1/5th to 1 sec range, and both of those same compositions would have looked radically different. If you don't have an ND filter, perhaps getting one of those would be in order? For brighter shots like this a 10 stop would be great, or perhaps the normal 3 stop ND and a Polarizer together? Though if you are still shooting with the D300, if I recall the min ISO is 200 right? You might need the 10 stop ND. I got a B+W 10 stop for I think just a little over $100 at BH Photo. That's not too bad.

Jim



Apr 21, 2015 at 02:58 AM





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