Storm surge was creating 15-20’ waves on the incoming tide. I found a place on the Point where I could see the waves curling and look down through the tube. But I really loved the colors of the water in the churning seas. I spent about 30 minutes photographing before my fingers were frozen solid in the cold winds. This was my favorite shot of all the amazing wave action.
Specific Feedback Requested
I was trying to find the best exposure to be able to see the whites without overblowing the highlights. Also wanted to get the motion as well as the details. I used Topaz AI Clear to sharpen the details and to reduce the highlights- while still maintaining the whites. Is there any other recommendations for capturing white on whites without getting them muddied?
Technical Details
Is this a composite: No
Nikon D500, Nikon 18-300mm 3.5-5.6 lens (older lens that I didn’t mind taking into the sleet storm). Shot at 1/600 sec, F5.6, ISO 220, 300mm.
EJ, I enjoy shooting strong wave action on shore in So Cal. It is often very fast action and then waiting for the next sets to come pounding in. I can usually check the results immediately on my view monitor for over the top whites, by using the histogram view set as the initial display screen. Exposures can change rapidly due to sun and wave action. So you do the best you can, Underexposing is usually better and can be worked in processing easier. I am not familiar with Topaz so would not know what type of sliders or controls are available for adjusting whites. With Lightroom it is usually a combination of Exposure, Highlights and White sliders . Usually I start adjusting down the Highlight slider and it provides better surf detail. similar to adjusting cloudy skies. If I feel I’m losing too much of the surf’s whiteness, then I’ll try and step up the Exposure or White slider just a little more. It is also interesting to use a local adjustment brush on certain parts of the wave action.
Regarding the image…you’ve got good colors with the sea green in the curl and blue above it but I don’t get a sense of scale, the wave could be 8 feet or 3 feet I don’t think it is in the 15-20 feet range. Sometimes a wider view showing more of the wave and ocean can help. In your case pulling back to 250mm maybe. I like the blue water above the break and would like to more see more, pulling back would do that. Everything seems a little tight and maybe that’s what you were going for. There is enough good detail in the surf, maybe just a little flat and dull on the fall left center of image).
My better wave shots are usually when I set the camera for a 3 second per frame burst . I am only about 5 minutes from the Pacific and I like to see the storm action when it comes in on the tide. Good luck and good shooting!
I think one way get a sense of motion with images like this partly by leaving a decent amount of space in front of the wave. This leaves the wave room to move into visually. This also ties into @Stephen_Stanton comments around leaving more space around the image overall. I also like the green and blue tones in the water, they look great.
Regarding processing whites, I also use an Lightroom approach similar to Stephan. The only thing I would add is that this often involves not just global adjustments to the overall image, but also locallized adjustments via the radial filter and/or adjustment brush. This allows one to vary the amount of whites, highlights, exposure adjustments that are applied to different parts of the image.
Yes, the sense of scale was hard to capture - the surf was 15’ and above (8+ years of sea duty in the Navy - I know my seas… : ) When I zoomed out - I could not capture the colors and details and it still did not provide the scale. The cliffs are 100’ tall and the waves were coming in at 1/4 to 1/3 the way up the base before crashing and sending spray over the top…
Very interesting - but becomes the problem of how to capture scale if you are not familiar with the actual height of the cliff.
