Ocean Visit

[jordana]

Hi fellow photographers!

I am new here to the group, but I love to take pictures. So I thought I would ask about one of my favorite pictures I took this summer of my son. It was the kids first visit to the ocean and I took over 500 pictures in 2 days. I keep thinking that I am missing something when taking the pictures.

[windrider86]

Great picture. I know what you mean, I recently took a trip to the ocean and shot about a thousand pictures myself.
One thing I might do is to crop this as a portrait picture rather than landscape. There is too much on either side of the child to keep him as the focal point of your picture.
You might also try either britening up the colors or perhaps converting to black and white. It just seems to flat to me.

[clockdoc]

You are commended for being so diligent in capturing so many images while at the beach. I think success with photos such as these is largely a matter of luck and timing. I was very lucky in getting this shot of my great-nephews and niece when we were visiting them a while back. I had taken my Kodak 3.1 mp camera to the beach and shot a few of the kids playing in the surf. In many of them the kids were facing ou to sea as in your shot. Suddenly the waves got much stronger and they turned around. I was lucky to get one shot off when a large wave hit them.

[jaydubyasee]

Hi Jordana,

I hope you don't mind but I had a go a re-touching your picture. It isn't perfect by any means as I'm still on a learning curve with PP but I think you can see what I was trying to do.



If you don't want this shown please let me know and I'll remove it immediately.

[jordana]

Thank you for the replies and comments. I did try to play with it some today and here is the result that I was finally happy with. Iam hoping it actually looks better.

[jiminyClickit]

jordana, Welcome

You've still kept the sense of ocean and brought your son more into prominence. A little bit more contrast would set this off, and say "bright sun." If you masked your son while contrasting, even better. You have good detail there now, worth saving. Maybe some saturation of color in the water, just minor things. Crop is good; you could leave a little more room top and right to give him a destination, somewhere to move into.