Sometimes the wind is really powerful at the westcoast of Sardinia. My aim was to visualize the roaring mighty sea, using the cliff and the small fisherman, to give an idea about how high the waves were coming in.
What artistic feedback would you like if any?
I took another one, with the wave even a little higher, touching the upper frame. Thought, that would make them look mightier. But in the end, I liked this photo better. Am I right or would you prefer the tighter version?
Pertinent technical details or techniques:
(If this is a composite, etc. please be honest with your techniques to help others learn)
Single shot, Canon 5D, EF100-400mm @ 400mm, f8, ISO 400, 1/3000, handheld
I don’t know, it would be helpful if you could post both versions so we could compare them. You can edit your post to go back and put the second image directly underneath the first one. If I had to guess, I think leaving some blue sky above the top of the wave is helpful. In fact I wish there was slightly more blue above the top of the wave. Rework with 3% canvas added at top, and Photoshop Content Aware Fill to add blue sky above
Including the person for a sense of scale is so important to the story. Take that person away, and you have no clue as to how impressive these waves really are. The processing here looks excellent, good exposure, contrast and color, very nice job on this one.
Thank you Ed, I didn’t know about this 2. image option. Just added it. This 2. image isn’t cropped. It’s interessting, that you proposed to add about 3% to the sky. That’s more or less the amount of sky, I cropped out to make the wave look bigger. My impression with waves (or trees, or towers, …) always is, they look mightier, when they almost touch the upper frame. Your suggestion made me reconsider that.
So i did a virtual copy of that photo in LR, decropped it and compared. Still don’t know. which one to prefer
For something like this, I always prefer to have some “breathing room” around important things like that wave. The person in the image is really all you need to say “that is one big wave !!!”
@Igor_Doncov usually has some firm opinions on space around clouds near the top of the frame. It would be interesting to get his take on this image as well.
I do agree with adding sky above but I like the cropped version because it feels immediate and close. It better captures the impending danger. I cropped even closer to make about the fisherman and the wave:
Vignetting helps as well. Basically the right side of the cliff near the frame should be darkened in my opinion. More than what vignetting accomplishes. The eye goes from the center of the wave, along the cliff, and straight out the frame. You want it to stop at the fisherman.
An impressive wave and a great capture of it, Michaela! The fisherman is a nice bonus because of the scale that it demonstrates. I have to admit that my second thought after “Wow! What a wave!” was “That guy must not be planning on catching a very big fish because I have no idea how he would get it up there!”. The first version is my favorite as I like to see the top of the splash and the fisherman provides the necessary scale to realize the size. A fun image and nicely done!
