Shellfish, Lobster Rolls

[fraxl]

I took this in Provincetown, MA a few weeks ago. Generally I like it but it's lacking something that I can't place. Any thoughts? TIA



Camera: Canon EOS Kiss Digital X
Exposure: 0.005 sec (1/200)
Aperture: f/9.0
Focal Length: 55 mm
Exposure: +0.45
ISO Speed: 200

[freezeframe03]

I'm no expert but my eyes want to see the buoys or floats close up, so maybe if you crop out the boring parts and the cables and concentrate on the buoy wall that would make it a better shot IMO. That's quite the collection and might be fun to look at the variety in more detail.

[javavibe]

I have a couple of ideas that might improve your shot a little. One of the most distracting elements of your image is the utility wires coming into the roof. You might want to make a tighter crop to the roof and clone out the post and wires. There also might be a bit of an exposure issue coming from the reflection of the buoys. You shadows are not showing any details (especially the roof), a curve adjustment with the lighter areas masked might help. There could be a colour cast that is making the image too blue, it could also be corrected with a curve adjustment. Is this a sunrise? Sunrise light can be cold, I'm just guessing. If you want, I could do the edits for you. Just so you could see what I am thinking.

[ARBORGUY]

Nice!! I like the way the sunlight is falling on the buoys.

I really agree that a tighter crop would capture your "point of focus", which I assume is the wall.

I would like to see more of the colors that are in this image...now they are rather muted.

Years ago we stayed at the White Dory B & B in Provincetown...I wonder if it's still there!?

Thanks for sharing!

[fraxl]

Originally Posted by javavibe

I have a couple of ideas that might improve your shot a little. One of the most distracting elements of your image is the utility wires coming into the roof. You might want to make a tighter crop to the roof and clone out the post and wires. There also might be a bit of an exposure issue coming from the reflection of the buoys. You shadows are not showing any details (especially the roof), a curve adjustment with the lighter areas masked might help. There could be a colour cast that is making the image too blue, it could also be corrected with a curve adjustment. Is this a sunrise? Sunrise light can be cold, I'm just guessing. If you want, I could do the edits for you. Just so you could see what I am thinking.

Thank you for this! I'm kind of new at post-processing, so I'd love to see what your edits would look like. I think I know how to adjust the curves, but what do you mean by masked?

This was actually taken in the late afternoon, maybe an hour or so before sunset. The blue issue might be me compensating for my monitor... let me know what you think :-)

[fraxl]

Originally Posted by freezeframe03

I'm no expert but my eyes want to see the buoys or floats close up, so maybe if you crop out the boring parts and the cables and concentrate on the buoy wall that would make it a better shot IMO. That's quite the collection and might be fun to look at the variety in more detail.

Thank you! I'm going to attempt to 'shop out the cables and see how that looks.

I did take a few shots that were more focused on the bouys. Would you say this one is better?

[freezeframe03]

I would say you're getting there, but I still want to see those buoys closer. Again, no expert here, just know what is catching my attention and feeling frustrated that I can't see what I want to see. I guess stuff like this fascinates me.

I love that I can see a bit around the corner of the building on this one. I'd try cropping the sky out all the way to the building roof and most of the foreground just keeping maybe a third of what shows and see how that looks.

[javavibe]

This is the edit I was thinking about. I'm at work on an uncalibrated monitor, so the colours could be off. But this is generally what I am thinking. I have colour corrected the image using a curves layer (it had a blue cast to it), added a second curve layer to lighten the shadows and bring out the detail, cloned out the utilities, cropped closer to the building, straightened the horizon (slightly skewed to the right), and sharpened the image. The left hand side of the image was a little out of focus and I thought the sharpening might help. I might have gone to far. What do you think? I did the edit in Photoshop CS3. A mask is a tool you can add to any layer that allows you to apply an effect to only the portion of the image you want adjusted by blocking out the area you don't want the adjustment applied to. On this image I have a mask applied to the light areas of the shadow adjustment layer, so only the shadows are lightened. I did this so I could pull some of the detail up that was underexposed on the left. Maybe better, maybe not. It is fun to try though. Thank you.

[big jc]

Javavibe that is exactly what was thinking too when I saw the photo. getting rid of the wires and some of the foreground made you eye go to and stay on the buoys. Nice job of cloning out the wires and pole by the way.