I spend a lot of time walking the shoreline of Lake Superior. On calmer days the waves leave these lines in the sand. I have photographed them on multiple occasions but they often are difficult to distinguish from the rest of the sand. This morning was an exception and aside from just showing up they had an interesting pattern to them as well.
Type of Critique Requested
Aesthetic: Feedback on the overall visual appeal of the image, including its color, lighting, cropping, and composition.
Specific Feedback and Self-Critique
Ill put the original in the comments. I cropped it fairly extensively, but I think it works on the smaller scale but im always interested in how people might see it differently.
Technical Details
Sony a7ii 17mm 2/5sec f13 ISO 125. Edit in lightroom. I spot removed a bunch of little sticks and rocks i thought were distracting.
Very cool Cameron and your inclusion of the original is useful depicting the whole scene. Very surprised at the redness of the sand, which, I guess, means a lot of iron oxides. So I think the crop was fine; your main subject is the beach area and wave lines; inclusion of the wave from the upper left adds interest and context, as well as the lone stick. My only other thought would be to increase the exposure a bit, but not so much that you lose the lines.
I particularly like the reflection of the blue sky and white clouds because those colors compliment the color of the sand… and I like how the water’s edge mimics the first long line in the sand. I’m glad you captured it as it was just receding or approaching because it allows us to see the line more clearly, if the water had been right on the line, the line might have been obscured to some degree.
Agreed that the stick adds interest and appeal!
I am curious about the vignetting in the lower corners, was that an effect of your 17mm lens?
I feel that a careful lifting of the exposure at the bottom right corner to match the exposure level of the sand near the stick would be an improvement, the darker corner leaves an impression that the sand is sloping down at that point which leaves the area near the stick appearing elevated or crowned.
Maybe blend both bottom corners?
Even if the sand was actually sloping like it appears, I feel it would improve the image to raise the exposure in the area(s) mentioned.
Having said that, I feel that it’s a very appealing and pleasing image with attractive colors, and the patterns in the sand really set of off.
I’m sure you are happy that you were finally able to get the image you were after
BTW, thank you so much for including the original image, it really helps others to visualize the possibilities with their own images and it helps us to understand your initial perspective and crop choice.
Cameron, what a find! I also like that you have included the original. I actually find the blue ULC distracting. The context would still be clear if you cropped it more. You’d have an even more abstract image, retaining some spray without losing key wave lines. I’ve had a go at this below. A matter of personal taste, and it’s a fascinating shot as is:
Thanks Merv! I am honestly not sure what’s going on with the dark in the corners. I took this shot in Spring of 2020, and I have only recently begun to edit my photos selectively instead of globally when lightroom introduced its more beefed up masking tools.
This is an amazing small scene! It has a strong structure of lines in the sand that perfectly match the branch. There is a good contrast between the branch/the lines in the sand, and the red sand. I also like the color contrast between the red sand and the blue parts in the ULC. Anyhow, I would have cropped the image even more (from left and from above) deleting the uppermost part of the water in the ULC. To increase/simplify the color contrast one idea could be to change the colors of the water surface so that it contains more clearly only red and blue tones.
I’m not sure either but I have noticed dark edges and corners with really wide angle lenses on several of my own images, but, it might be that the sand is absorbing the light unevenly?
I like @Mike_Friel’s crop suggestion a lot. the crop makes the semi circle look better, too.
I adjusted the exposure, color temperature and tint in small areas of the sand to blend the colors and exposure levels a little more using a series of masks, I used a linear gradient mask in the corners and another one at the top (but I subtracted the water from that gradient). I used brushes of varying sizes, densities and feather amounts in several areas.
It’s just an option for you to consider.
Thanks for the response and your thoughts!
Edit: I forgot to mention that the lighter exposure in the lower right corner area gives the sense or impression that the beach is sloping up from the water’s edge, brighter highlights usually translate to the sense of elevated areas in many images IMHO.
A fine photo! Superior is the land of Iron after all. Am heading north of Duluth next week to see what winter has brought us.
In terms of vignetting with wide angle lenses, it’s pretty common. Lightroom can help correct this using lens profiles that you find and set in this panel -
If the automatic application of the profile correction doesn’t do the trick you can use the two sliders on the bottom to get it to your liking.
The manual side of the panel has controls for everything the profiles do automatically. I find defringing helpful for correcting color casts that can be caused by high-contrast conditions. Just a little movement of the sliders combined with selecting the right color ranges to correct for makes a huge difference sometimes.
Thank you Kristen. Enjoy your time up north. We finally have some ice here with some subzero temps, but I don’t know if it will stay given that it’s warming up some later in the week. Thank you for the quick tutorial. I have used the lens correction before but mainly to correct a distorted horizon. I was not aware of it’s potential in other areas.
Great tip for rectifying vignetting issues when you don’t want the effect.
I’ve never used the manual sliders but I rarely use my 18mm lens but I’ll keep this in mind for when I do.
Just a thought but it might be best to use the correction before any cropping so it doesn’t brighten corners of the crop that don’t need it.
Thanks for posting that!
Cameron, I hope you didn’t take it that I thought you “should” change the corner exposure levels in this image, it’s your image and my suggestion was just a suggestion, and a tip for any image where you don’t like the vignetting effect.
I can see where this image in particular would be more appealing with the darker corners, images don’t have to make sense in every way, they only need to be what you want them to be
No worries Merv. I took it as a suggestion. For me getting those other perspectives is helpful. Being on this site has already led me to be more intentional as I compose and edit images.
