I had good fortune last night at a local beach with an intense sunset and a flock of birds that was flying above my subject.
Specific Feedback Requested
I don’t have anything in particular but welcome any reactions or feedback.
Technical Details
Is this a composite: Yes
This is a three image blend (taken within minutes of each other) for the background, midground (sea stacks), and foreground. The background frame is a open aperture (f/4) and fast shutter speed (1/200 s) to freeze the birds (with focus on infinity), the midground is a long exposure (5 s) to smooth out the water near the horizon (with focus on the sea stacks), and a slow(ish) shutter speed (1/5 s) for the wave action that I liked (with focus on the closest rock).
The impact of this image is simultaneously calming and exciting. The work you put in on composition capture and processing really paid off. Your capture sequence is quite new to me, showing technical sophistication, great pre-visualization, and a fine familiarity with the location and its moods. Truly an eye-opening approach.
As a viewer, I need to decide what I think about the foreground rock, more specifically its bright reflection. The brightness on the bottom edge of the frame makes it equal to the luminosity and contrast of the sunset, and my eye does not flow into the scene very well, rather it ping-pongs from the bottom edge to the horizon. In the attachment, I doused its brightness and saturation, yielding an effect that appeals to me a bit more.
Just wondering, do you have any more of the right side captured? It would be interesting to see that curve closed up and the wave in lrc coming from somewhere.
I agree with @Dick_Knudson …The work you put in on composition, capture and processing really paid off. Your capture sequence is quite new to me, showing technical sophistication, great pre-visualization, and a fine familiarity with the location and its moods.
The flow through this image is the one thing holding it back a little bit for me. Not a lot, just a little and I don’t think it’s a deal breaker. Just a nit. Don’t read too much into this as it’s just my point of view. You have a lot going on in the foreground, followed by a very abrupt transition into smooth water, followed by an abrupt transition into rough water where the waves are breaking and leading into a nice set of sea stacks and sunset. I think the foreground rocks take away from sea stacks and compete way too much for the viewers attention. I think you could either shoot the sea stacks or shoot the foreground rocks but not sure if both work. The foreground just dominates the scene a little too much for me although I find the set of rocks you chose to be beautiful…I would love to see these same foreground rocks leading into some wave action and a sunset without the sea stacks making the composition less busy. This may be my uncalibrated laptop that I’m viewing this on but I also notice a little bit of green/cyan cast in the sky and a purple hue in the foreground water making the colors of the foreground and the sky a little bit disjointed but like I said, take this with a grain of salt because of the laptop and probably something that’s easy to fix if in fact it’s really there.
I absolutely love that you you created a shot that includes the set of sharp birds at the top of the frame. Incredible previsualization. I also really love the gold reflection in the calm water. I wish I had your ability to previsualize my images like you did on this one.
This is a very ambitious image. @David_Haynes has pointed out some of the issues. In addition to being isolated the rocks are too close to the edge of the frame. As much as I like the rocks this is what you get without them. It’s a major crop and I know people usually don’t like such drastic modifications. Many of us would kill for an image like the cropped version.
One thing the crop shows is that the water is brighter than the sky. I would fix that.
Thank you Dick, David, and Igor. All very helpful and insightful feedback. I went back and looked through the other frames I had of the moving water and the one taken just before the one I used has a more complete curve on the left edge (although I do like the overall movement in the other version). Here is a version using that frame, along with toning down the saturation and brightness of the foreground rock reflections and midground water. I also expanded the long exposure frame to smooth out the crashing waves in the midground–to me it is better transition than before, although I’m still contemplating whether to keep the foreground rocks/waves.
Beautiful light and mood. Interesting to read and process the comments above and study the images. I went back and forth between versions and found that for me, @Igor_Doncov 's rendition really nails it. While I like the foreground in the full versions, it seems to prevent me from continuing on to the middle and beyond. Igor’s crop really pops the sea reflection, the waves and on in. You have really good options whichever way you choose to take it.
I find that the crop that @Igor_Doncov came up with is beautiful and he’s right, lots of people would kill for this cropped shot. I would also remove just a sliver along the top of the frame as it has two blue spots leaking into the image just a hair.
There’s so much to like here! I’ll echo much of the above. If the rocks were more into the image, my vote would be to keep them because I love that foreground anchor and don’t mind the background supporting, but as is I do like the crop.
On my monitor the sky is dark, and I’d brighten it some. If you do that, you’ll likely have to add saturation to keep the same feel.
I think this is a gorgeous image and applaud your planning and execution. I love the FG rocks and waves, but wish the rock wasn’t cut off at the bottom. I like the sky color correction, and for me the main issue with the original is that the midground is bright and separates the two halves too much. It s much darker in the second version and I think it could be darkened in the original.
It looks like pelicans moving north and they may give you another chance for a while.
I agree with most of the above comments. Igor’s crop nails it. Regarding the original, with the rock present and slightly cut off, I disagree with Diane. For me, its not a problem. I have been looking at a lot of Ansel Adams photos, and also at some of the old masters’ oil paintings, and realize that our current obsession with not having anything cut off at a border of the photo has become a meme, similiar to putting narly old logs, bushes, or rocks in the foreground of a photo because it has been written somewhere that you have to have a foreground object. Obviously, important objects in the photo like a tree or mountain shouldn’t be cut off, but IMO unimportant things are a different story. In the old works of art I have been examining, plenty of things are cut off, and the compositions are brilliant. I think compositional styles, like so many other things, go through being “in” or “out”. In my photos I too have usually strived to not cut anything off, like a rock or a tree, and have cropped the photo to do that, but rethinking this I believe often the overall composition would be better to have a tighter crop.
Thank you, Diane and Tony. I appreciate all the feedback from everyone. I have been continuing to re-work this image, trying different things. I may re-post a new version (or two!) soon.
