Sea Foam

[ZannieGirl49]

I took this shot and was really torn about the foam in the foreground. I've gotten two comments on Flickr and one liked it, the other didn't. I just want to see what other people have to say about that...and anything else that could improve the shot.




Nikon D90
Exposure 1/640
ISO 200
Aperture f5.6
Focal Length 66mm

[Mike367]

I think it adds depth to the image.

[offwhitedog]

I'd come down on the side of not liking it. The out-of-focus foreground foam pulls my eyes in a way that it shouldn't, if you generally use bokeh etc to emphasise the main subject, not the object that is out-of-focus.

If you'd got it within the DOF and therefore in-focus, I'd say it would be ok.

Reading that again I'm not sure if I've explained it very well - do you get my point?

[Axionne]

I generally find out of focus foregrounds are distracting. Unfortunately here too. I'd be happier if the foreground foam were in focus.

[equilution]

I would have cropped that part out. Ideally, I would have liked to see the foam in the foreground in focus and in its entirety, rather than cut off. I think the texture in the sand and the foam make for a very interesting shot!!

[ZannieGirl49]

Thanks for all of your input! I cropped the shot and here's what I came up with. The really funny part is that I pulled the original (foam in the foreground) shot out before going through my images a second time. So, in doing the edit I found that there was another shot that I took that SOOC looks almost EXACTLY like the shot below. That's what I get for posting before I go through my images a second time around! Is this one a bit better?

[preacherman1000]

I prefer it without Suzanne as you know. I think it is either with the foreground foam in focus or gone as here. Too late now, I know, but a much lower viewpoint too may have helped, I say MAY. Beautiful cotrasting colours and sand texture.

[Mike367]

Well, I'm the odd man out here, because I still like the first one better. It doesn't bother me at all that the foam is out of focus because my eye shoots right past it to the intersection of foam and water in the distance.For me, it provides another plane, a visual cue that I'm looking into a 3 dimensional space rather than higher on a 2 dimensional field.

[ezred]

At first the foam in the foreground appeared to me to be distracting from the image. It was not until I studied this for a few minutes that I realized that it was not the immediate foreground foam that caused this, but the foam in the foreground that comes in from the right hand side. It is about a fifth of the way from the bottom and is separated from the other foreground foam by a bit of sand. I have not taken the liberty to conduct any processing, but perhaps if you cropped this small piece out, then the foreground foam could work. See what you think.

[ZannieGirl49]

Originally Posted by preacherman1000

I prefer it without Suzanne as you know. I think it is either with the foreground foam in focus or gone as here. Too late now, I know, but a much lower viewpoint too may have helped, I say MAY. Beautiful cotrasting colours and sand texture.

Thanks Paul. I was actually about as close as I could get to the ground without lying on my stomach on the beach so I'm not sure how much lower I could've gotten!

Originally Posted by Mike367

Well, I'm the odd man out here, because I still like the first one better. It doesn't bother me at all that the foam is out of focus because my eye shoots right past it to the intersection of foam and water in the distance.For me, it provides another plane, a visual cue that I'm looking into a 3 dimensional space rather than higher on a 2 dimensional field.

I think I'm the odd girl out on my own shot here because the more I looked at it and tried to crop, the more I liked the first one too. I feel like my eye shoots straight to the waterline also and maybe that's why I don't see the foreground as a distraction.

Originally Posted by ezred

At first the foam in the foreground appeared to me to be distracting from the image. It was not until I studied this for a few minutes that I realized that it was not the immediate foreground foam that caused this, but the foam in the foreground that comes in from the right hand side. It is about a fifth of the way from the bottom and is separated from the other foreground foam by a bit of sand. I have not taken the liberty to conduct any processing, but perhaps if you cropped this small piece out, then the foreground foam could work. See what you think.

Very interesting point! I see what you're talking about. I tried cropping it out but for some reason it made the large bit of foam feel more obtrusive.

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Thanks to all for responding and showing me different ways to look at this image. This has been a great exercise for me. More than just getting feedback on this shot, it's gotten me to question whether my response to feedback is purely ego and attachment, "I can't believe they don't like my AMAZING shot! (insert indignation here)" or just that I happen to like this shot even though some other people don't. For this one I've gone back and forth about it and tried different versions. I think that I just like it the original way.