Shipwreck!

[Neville Bailey]

I took a walk along a very wind-swept beach north of Durban this afternoon to have a look at this ship which ran aground recently.

I battled to get the right overall exposure, with the setting sun shining on part of the ship and the rest shrouded in shadow.

I was pleased, however, with the way I caught the wave crashing over the ship.

What do you think?

Oh yes, my horizon is not level...

Pentax *ist DL camera.
F-stop: f/6.7
Exposure time: 1/500 sec
ISO speed: ISO-200
Focal length: 55mm
35mm focal length: 82

[ik631]

What a great opportunity. There loss = your fortune. It seems like this is the biggest problem I run into when I am shooting. Usually its with my kids so I don't have a lot of time to plan the exposure, use filters, etc. I recently received a bunch of help with a picture to help imrpove the contrast between areas in sun and shade. If you shot in raw the comments that were given to me might apply to you as well. Here is the thread: Hide and Seek. The original is better than I can regurgitate it.

One thing, see if you can photoshop out the gangway and fence. The gangway is partially cut out of the picture and the fence isn't very attractive against the ocean.

[Neville Bailey]

Originally Posted by ik631

I recently received a bunch of help with a picture to help imrpove the contrast between areas in sun and shade. If you shot in raw the comments that were given to me might apply to you as well. Here is the thread: Hide and Seek. The original is better than I can regurgitate it.

Thanks for the link! I have just read through it and, to be honest, most of the advice there is going right over my head! I'm still very much a beginner, as I only got my camera just over a week ago, so I have a LOT to learn. What I can tell you, though, is that I did not shoot the picture in RAW.

Originally Posted by ik631

One thing, see if you can photoshop out the gangway and fence. The gangway is partially cut out of the picture and the fence isn't very attractive against the ocean.

I don't have Photoshop, but I have downloaded GIMP, so I will give that a go and report back with a cleaned up image...

[Neville Bailey]

Is this better?

I decided to rather crop the fence at the bottom, instead of trying to fudge the fence!

[mwatson]

It looks good cropped. Where the gangplank was looks pixilated. Do you have a feathered type brush in your program?

If you just brighten up the front of the ship, the water and sky look great you're good to go.

[ik631]

Good choice about the fence. I find it easier to crop than deal with coplicated backgrounds when trying to delete objects. I'm about 9months in with my DSLR and about 3 months in shooting RAW. I was hesitant about it but it has saved many of my shots because of the greater amounts of adjustments you can make. I have messed up some of the settings such as WB more times than I can count. With a jpeg sometimes the problems are almost impossible to fix where they are easy with RAW.

I rememberseeing a GIMP tutorial somewhere on here if you search for it. From what I have read it is very similar to Photoshop. If it is true you should be able to lighten up just the bow of the ship without affecting the rest of the photo. Don't forget to straighten the horizon. It's one my common mistakes I have been working on overcoming all summer! Easy in any editing program.

Good Luck