Taken near one of our favourite camping spots beside the sea. When the tide is very low there are many starfish exposed, providing a tasty meal for the gulls. Being sunset I was attracted to the warm reflections on the slowly moving water, and the contrast between that and the starfish texture.
Specific Feedback Requested
Was unsure whether to try and get most of this image in sharp focus, or to create a generally soft image of water and a contrast with the starfish. Obviously I chose the latter. What do you think?
Technical Details
1/100s, f4.5, ISO 100
LR, PS. Cropped and Topaz noise reduction.
Hi Phil, welcome to NPN. I am sure you’ll get a lot out of this community and am sure we’ll get a lot from your contributions as well.
I like the image you posted. Normally for landscape images, I prefer sharpness front to back, but this one is different because the shallow depth of field highlights the near bumps and the out of focus areas in the back give a sense of place. I do think it might benefit from some increase in the shadows as it feels a bit dark.
Looking forward to seeing more of your work, Phil.
Thanks for the welcome David. Yes, I tried to increases exposure in the shadows but there was too much noise there and I couldn’t remove enough of it without losing a lot of definition.
Thankyou Matt. Afraid I didn’t take another version with greater DOF as I didn’t have a tripod and the light was fading fast so I just went for this one instead. It was a long way from the shore. Cheers.
I like your choice to blur the background. If it were all sharp the starfish wouldn’t even show up. It would just be another lump in the sand. This is a more minimalist scene that works well. I might try and go black and white with this.
Oh, Welcome to NPN, Phil. Good to have you here. Great first post. Can’t wait to see more of your work.
Welcome, Phil! This has to be the most unique starfish image I’ve ever seen – I love it! Shallow DOF worked perfectly here. I would be tempted to do some additional blurring on the top third or quarter, with a gradient. Looking forward to seeing more of your work!
Thanks Diane. Glad you like it. Because I mostly enjoy macro work, I’m a sucker for shallow DOF and creamy bokeh so your comment regarding additional blurring is music to my ears. I see that you are also into macro…I enjoyed looking through your images before joining NPN. Love your lady in Birch! Cheers.
