The photographer is looking for generalized feedback about the aesthetic and technical qualities of their image.
Description
Dawn, looking south, alone on the beach apart from a few people in the distance. The sandy orange rocks caught my eye at the time but in post processing the shot was all about the lone fisher in the distance. I did remove two other beach walkers in the far distance to boost the solitude of the fisher.
Specific Feedback
Composition and foreground colour.
Technical Details
5Ds + EF 16-35mm f4L @ 16mm, ISO 100, f11, 8s. PP in ACR, crop and sharpen in PS CC.
I really like the two parts of this Mark. The lower part is filled with rock structure and tide pool, lines and texture, and the upper part is emptiness with the soft sea and and open sky above; one part is busy and one not. Both are very nice, but where I’m not so sure is the two in the same image.
If I zoom into the large version and focus on that top portion with the rocks and tidepool gone, my mind wanders to what an image would look like with just a tad more ocean and sand below the person fishing, with with the relatively featureless ocean and sky to emphasize the loneliness of it all. For the busier foreground my eye wonders what it would look like with a more active sky, maybe some dramatic clouds or similar, to complement the rugged textures…
I’ve printed this large and its hanging on the my lounge room wall. The closest I get is say 1 metre away so there’s no zoom as such, I look at the image in its entirety but am drawn to the fisher.
That said, I have now zoomed in to the pic as posted and see what you mean. Being a 50mp pic I can do a landscape orientated crop across the top (ish) of the image which I think may solve the issue you raised.
I know what you’re saying about the sky but I think any dramatic sky would change the “chilled, alone” feel on the image.
Hi Mark I love your image, I think it reflects the solitude of the fisherman. A beautiful moment to contemplate nature.
As for the colour it looks natural. The composition I like but I would try to crop a little the right side and the sky. Leaving the fisherman in the right third of the image.
Very cool!! I wouldn’t want to crop anything – the composition is just right. The fisherman being centered works to emphasize the vastness, as does the largely empty sky and the way the beach fades into the distance. The subtle color in the wispy clouds at the top of the sky justifies keeping all of it. You might have a twofer with just the top half being another excellent image.
The light is wonderful and the fisherman is a nice touch (after you find him). The composition is an issue in my opinion due to what basically @John_Williams wrote. It’s not that there are 2 stories going on. It’s that there is a horizontal composition on top of a vertical one - all within a vertical frame. But I can understand the attraction due to the personal experience and memory.
Mark,
The pastels in this beach scene are quite lovely and I find them serene and inviting. The dominant rocks do make a nice lead in to the fisherman, but he/she just seems a little small; at least to me; in the frame. I hope you do not find, but I played around with some crops and here is what I came up with. It makes the rocks a little less dominant while making the fisherman a little more a part of the image. Just my opinion of course.
Thanks for the feedback Ed. I like that crop and I’ll go back to my original and see what I can do. I always “saw” this pic as a vertical shoot and had not considered the horizontal option.
I think I would have great memories of this image and the place it was taken too, Mark. What a great scene. Let me start with your original post. I quite like the juxtaposition of the enormous, heavy weight of the rock in the foreground with all of that texture and the lines. As my eyes work their way through the scene I find a lone fisher in a tranquil, wet sand reflecting soft warm colors from the sky. The leading line of the rock takes you through a beautiful colored tidepool, contrasting nicely with the incredible textures of the rock straight to the fisher. I even like that there is just one tiny little section of clouds in the sky.
And then I read @John_Williams post. I agree largely with what John has said and there is certainly merit to it. Honestly, I can go either way because I am now viewing the crop that @Ed_Lowe applied an I think it’s terrific too. What I think I like about the original is the enormity of the scene set against this tranquil background and the very small, lonely fisher and the total juxtaposition they play together. I also like that you have to search a little bit to find the fisher and then you feel like you found something special. On the original, I would crop off the top of the sky with the extra clouds up there but I like both the crop and original.
