Waves of sand

[vgal]

Every so often, I end up with a photo I took that I'm just not sure about, and this is one of those times. The version I'm posting has some basic post-processing applied - fixing contrast and color. The original can be found here.

Waves of sand


Besides the fact that I need a better lens (this was taken with an ebay-bargain old manual focus zoom lens), what do you think?

[taykuyphotoart]

Love it...that is all... Love It.

[ELAY]

I like this photo. The texture in the sand is great, the out of focus feet in the background are great, as is the partial reflection in the little pools on the sand.

Good work on the post-processing -- the adjustments are well done. If you are fond of the shot and want to think about possible improvements, consider the following (which shouldn't be taken as criticism -- just suggestions):

- I think you could lose that pile of gook in the front through a crop, without detracting. Cropping up from the bottom, and over from the right, would also improve your composition a bit, I think.

- You have a ton of dark brown spots in the sand. Judging from your original, these really popped out when you did your contrast adjustment. It wouldn't be that big a job to clone them out, and I think it would remove a distraction.

- I would like to see more blues in the ocean. If you know how to use layer masks, I think it would be fairly simple to get some more blue in there.

- To me, it has a nostalgic, at the beach when we were kids, kind of mood to it. Maybe a bit of a vignette or something similar might contribute to that mood.

Cheers,

EL

[mdwsta4]

great capture! i would have liked to have seen just a bit more leg, but i like the reflection in the sand.
i would also second cropping or cloning out the stuff in the front right of the frame.

[vgal]

taykuyphotoart, thank you for your kind words!

ELAY, I tried a couple of your suggestions (the quick ones - the crop and the bluer water), and I have to say, I really like the new crop! When I have more time, I will work on cloning out the rocks/brown spots, and experimenting with the vignetting.



mdwsta4, I wish I had gotten more of the legs in too! That was the first thing that I thought when I brought the picture up on my monitor. Getting the legs in was actually a last-minute decision - I was originally only taking a picture of the sand waves, when I saw the child walking, and made a split-second decision to move my viewfinder up to capture his legs.