This shot was taken from my most recent outing. Here, the tide has just turned and begins to flood the beach over a lovely Sunset at Rhosneigr, North Wales.
I’m working hard to improve my photography and would really appreciate some genuine critique, so please feel free to tear the image apart.
Sony A7r3 / Sony Zeiss 16-35mm / Tripod
ISO 100 - 16mm - f/16 - 1/10sec
Single exposure, no filters. Carefully processed using ACR & PS
At first look, I found this to be a very strong image, and the more I look at it, the more details I find that reinforce that thought. My first focus was on the trio of rocks in the foreground. I’d possibly make a tighter crop bring them in a bit closer and provide a little more emphasis on them. I think my favorite aspect of the image is the subtle mirror image between the sea and sky. The darker clouds at the top of the image mimic the trio of rocks, and the diagonally ascending line of the wave has a companion descending diagonal line in the clouds. Wonderful! Any changes I’d make to the processing are certainly dependent on personal taste. I think the main suggestion I’d make would be to make a selection on the sky and experiment with levels of exposure, contrast, highlights, dehaze, and clarity. Here’s an example of how I’d process the image, but again, this is based on my personal taste.
Hey Cameron,
Thank you for taking the time. Like your tip about cropping in a bit tighter around the rocks in the foreground. I hadn’t noticed that and think that could make a nice touch.
I was finding it difficult to press harder with the other side of processing without crushing the atmosphere, like you say its always dependant on personal taste.
Thanks again for all your comments!
Hi John, I am really enjoying your seascape, it looks like you had wonderful sunset conditions here. I think your composition has some interesting elements to work with. The inclusion of the distant shorelines on both the left and right helps a lot to create some interest at the horizon line. I also love the way the surf creates that diagonal leading line, your composition does a great job of exploiting that.
I agree with @Cameron_Miller that cropping some from the bottom helps reduce negative space that’s not adding much to the scene. I also like what Cameron has done with contrast to accentuate the highlights in the water, it adds some more vitality to the image. But as presented you have a very nice image, and it’s well worth investing some processing time to enhance it even more.
Hi Ed,
Thanks a lot for your reply. I’m fully on side with you and Cameron about tightening the crop. I’ve since tested this and think it certainly helps with the comp.
However, I’m still unsure about the processing. You’ve really got me thinking how about my presentation may lacking in some vibrancy, etc. That’s really great feedback as I’m here to learn. On the flip side, how do you tell when the processing has been pushed too far? It’s got to be something more than just personal preference, right?
Here’s an image of the original RAW, just to show where things have stemmed from.
Hope to discuss further, thanks!
That’s to the trick to processing landscape images, achieving a balance that is more vibrant but still realistic. Here at NPN, we often like to talk about processing as “pushing for creative effect, but keeping it natural and believable” I’d say a good place to start is by looking at the processing of other images posted here at NPN critique that seem to be garnering a number of favorable comments, and studying what has been done with the processing. But ultimately it is a subjective judgement as to what is too much or not, and first and foremost you need to be comfortable with your own style of work.
But lets get back to your image, the raw, the original post, and Cameron’s rework. The raw looks yucky, but most raw files do, they almost never look good without processing. To my taste your original post looks like it could benefit from more contrast and color vibrance, the processing looks fairly understated.
Now look at Camerons re-work, which I’m going to break up into water and sky. In the water he has made the highlights and lighter tones brighter, while keeping the shadows dark, to me this increased contrast creates more vitality. His water just looks crisper than the original post. And he has lifted some shadow detail in the rocks, which adds nice texture. In the sky Cameron has increased both contrast and saturation. The increased contrast gives the clouds more impact IMO. Color and Saturation are perhaps the most subjective things. I like Cameron’s shift to more blue in the sky, and I like the increased saturation in the yellow/orange in the sky. I think Cameron may have taken the blue saturation a small bit too far, but not by much, and that just reflects his taste vs. mine.
But only you can decide if you like what Cameron has done. There is nothing wrong with understated processing, you may well get comments from others saying they like your original post. But to my taste, I prefer what Cameron has done.
Well Ed, it’s been great to get yours and Cameron’s take on things and I really appreciate your critiques. This has given me plenty to think about!
Thanks again for all your time
It’s always interesting to read the comments - often there are differnt views to be expressed. I like this a lot, John, as posted, but I agree with Cameron on increasing the contrast and bringing out out the colour more in the sky. Actually re the crop I am in a different camp - I often find negative space valuable ( it’s a very personal judgement I guess ) and here I think somehow it helps stress the presence of that first rock. Whatever, well done !
Thanks again for your replies Cameron, Ed, and Ian. Have to agree I was less than happy with the colors and the overall vibrancy of the original. I took on board everyone’s comments and after some careful consideration, decided to reprocess the image from scratch.
To me, this seems a nice improvement that I’m fairly comfortable with. Still unsure whether I’m fully satisfied, so maybe I’ll come back to it again at some stage. I think they say an image is never really done.
