SYS (Save Your Shot): Stunner with a problem

[S_Sanyal]

Shot on Nikon D90 with Nikkor 18-200mm VRII lense and CPL filter.
EXIF:Speed (1/40) Aperture f/8.0 Focal Length 18 mm ISO Speed 100
Exposure Bias +5/3 EV; PP in LR3 (monochrome and levels) and failed attempt at silhouette processing

This has been one of the more appreciated pictures of mine. I had posted this earlier in the comparison critique and unanimously everyone chose this monochrome version over its colour counterpart.

I have one issue with this picture which has been irking me for a while. Its the fact that the silhouette tends to get lost in the clouds; I initially thought that it lent some fluidity to the picture; the feeling of a seamless almost indecipherable translation from man to sky. Lately, this has however been bothering me a bit and I'm almost wishing that the silhouette stands out more distinct. I gave it a couple of PP tries and I am losing the brilliant highlights on the clouds, and overall in the backdrop.

I want to essentially know whether I'm being too nitpicky with my own picture or whether this is a genuine issue to a viewer.

Second, if this IS a problem that bothers you too, what would you do to fix it, its rather delicate as the fine line of the sihouette isnt cooperating with selective exposure change around it (dodging etc.)and in doing so, a funny halo around the man becomes prominent (possibly its visible here also). Any ideas on how to fix this are welcome , and anyone is welcome to go ahead and take their shot at it.

Thanks very much in advance.

[Eileen D]

When I first looked at the image, I didn't notice the silhouetted figure right away. My eye was caught by the intense sky and the silhouette of the boat. I did look at the picture on your Flickr page and the figure was more evident in the larger version. If you look at a full sceen version, does it still seem like a problem to you? If it is, I'm not sure what to suggest, since you would lose a lot of cloud detail if you lightened your background. Too bad he wasn't a bit more into that light area on the right!

[S_Sanyal]

Dunno Eileen. I have a 22.5" BenQ LED backlit screen callibrated to sRGB as external monitor on my laptop. This has been sitting as my desktop wallpaper for a while now. Thats what makes me stare at it for some time everyday

I just dont know about this for sure anymore as my brain has saturated a bit with it, but if the silhouette is evident to you on a larger version, thats great . I really need second, third, any number of opinions apart from mine on this.

Thanks for viewing and your feedback.

[carlyfan]

I'm so ignorant in PP that I really can't help there, but as far as a second opinion, I think it's fine, especially the full sized image on your Flickr. I don't think of the silhouette as the main focus of the picture. Rather, the silhouette and the scene together, and the feeling their interaction creates, make the photo. So in this respect I think it works quite well. I don't know what you were going for, but this is what I got out of it.
Gorgeous photo!

Lisa

[S_Sanyal]

Thanks Lisa. I was 'going for' everything you have mentioned about the interaction of the person and the sky/river scene. The challenge was to have the elements have their own identity yet be in harmony..
Glad you liked it. I'll keep waiting on the opinions.

[Cheezman]

Saptarishi, I'm with you and agree that the silhouette ain't right and gets lost as is. I also agree it is a stunning photo. If it were mine, I'd try a crop, taking out everything on the left side up to just to the right of the smokestack (or whatever that is) across the water. Then you're silhouette will look like a god with some funky atmospheric poof pouring off of his back. Thank you for sharing this.

[EOBeav]

The clouds are simply amazing. Maybe too amazing for the silhouette. That said, have you tried adjusting different color channels in your B/W processing to get more separation from the two? I don't know how much you can do that without losing some of those important details in your clouds. Just a thought.

[dlambert]

You might try adding an adjustment layer to lighten the clouds just a bit around the silhouette to increase the contrast a bit. You'd want to keep the adjustment pretty subtle, I think, because it's really very good as-is. I wouldn't be too concerned with the figure not being noticeable. When I viewed the photo, the boat (which is contrasts nicely) led my eyes to the silhouette.

[S_Sanyal]

Thanks everyone for your onservations. Dlambert, I'm glad that the boat helps you find the sihouette in the picture. EOBeav, yes. unfortunately, it was killing a bit of the highlights as well, I was thinking maybe I'll use the PP filters of Lightroom and adjust according to different colours..(am travelling now, for the next few days, will try when i hit base)...Cheezman, you;re idea is quite interesting, I will try that too.

In the meantime, while I'm still away (should be able to get back to forum on saturday), I'll attach the colour version and see if it adds to our ideas' pool in reagrd to PP, thanks

[S_Sanyal]

Thanks everyone for your observations. Dlambert, I'm glad that the boat helps you find the sihouette in the picture. EOBeav, yes. unfortunately, it was killing a bit of the highlights as well, I was thinking maybe I'll use the PP filters of Lightroom and adjust according to different colours..(am travelling now, for the next few days, will try when i hit base)...Cheezman, you're idea is quite interesting, I will try that too.

In the meantime, while I'm still away (should be able to get back to forum on saturday), I'll attach the colour version and see if it adds to our ideas' pool in reagrd to PP, thanks