USCG Tight Turn

[FrankMi]

I would like to see what the image looks like without any effects applied, for comparison. Aside from 3-D (and I'm not sure if I would recognise this in a 2-D image ), I think what you want is for the eye to be drawn to the boat and the spray, and not be distracted by anything elsewhere. You have chosen colour, which I like, though others might choose B&W for such an image. The benefit of colour is that the orange of the boat is the immediate eye catcher. Everyone has their own approach, but I would be tempted to experiment with enhancing contrast and clarity (not too much of the latter - keep an eye on it at 100% view), and maybe saturation, on the boat and spray, and maybe decrease saturation and clarity on the rest of the sea.

Edit PS I have to say I don't see this as particularly close up, given that your lens was at 186mm. At this length, you get a lot of foreshortening, and the subject would have to be much much closer to see DOF effects. I think getting lower and closer (in a boat?) with a shorter lens, would allow you to play with other elements, eg distant boats or coastline and maybe DOF to demonstrate depth.

Thank you for your interest in this project Paul. Here is the SOOC reduced to fit the TinyPic requirements and output sharpening applied to compensate for the size reduction.

Please feel free to play with the image if you like. If you decide to repost it with your changes, please let us know what steps you took to accomplish the changes so that we can all learn from your experience. If anyone else wants to take a crack at it we would could all benefit from your input and suggestions. Thank you all in advance!

[arith]

[Richard Lundberg]

Since we can never see the original image in this forum without the OP paying a fee somewhere, it's always hard to comment and harder still to make any edits to what is posted. The image looks flat because of the long focal length as the previous post also says. Why don't you put some of the perspective back in with one of the geometry tools. I use DxO Perspective which is either cheap or free, I can't remember.
In your original post you said you used Motion Blur at 23 deg and 40 px. I have never been able to go beyond 10 px without horrible artifacts, so frankly , I don't believe you.

[LocalHero1953]

Thanks for the opportunity to play with the image, within the limitations of a jpg and the size of image that you could post.
My edits were all in Lightroom.

I rotated it to give it a bit of energy (not everyone will agree with this!).
The dynamic range looked a bit narrow so I adjusted the white (+50) and black points (-18).
I put a slightly contrast tone curve on the whole image.
I put a radial filter across the boat and immediately surrounding spray, reducing contrast, clarity, saturation and sharpness across the rest of the image, each by 25. If I'd spent more time, I might have found that some of these were unnecessary, but they have the general effect of downplaying the sea.
I used an adjustment brush across the rest of the wake, increasing clarity by 57 - this may be a bit OTT, especially on such a small jpg.

Just one person's way of editing. I hope this helps, even if it helps you decide you don't like this approach
Comments welcome.

[FrankMi]

Although it seems a bit dark on my monitor, I do feel that moving in close helps! Thank you for the your view Steve!

[FrankMi]

Since we can never see the original image in this forum without the OP paying a fee somewhere, it's always hard to comment and harder still to make any edits to what is posted. The image looks flat because of the long focal length as the previous post also says. Why don't you put some of the perspective back in with one of the geometry tools. I use DxO Perspective which is either cheap or free, I can't remember.
In your original post you said you used Motion Blur at 23 deg and 40 px. I have never been able to go beyond 10 px without horrible artifacts, so frankly , I don't believe you.

Thank you for your comments Richard. I'll need to see if there is an equivalent Perspective tool on CS5. The Motion Blur was only applied to the flat water and even there it was softened by the use of a Gradient so any artifacts that you may be expecting to see may not be as noticeable.

[FrankMi]

Thanks for the opportunity to play with the image, within the limitations of a jpg and the size of image that you could post.
My edits were all in Lightroom.

I rotated it to give it a bit of energy (not everyone will agree with this!).
The dynamic range looked a bit narrow so I adjusted the white (+50) and black points (-18).
I put a slightly contrast tone curve on the whole image.
I put a radial filter across the boat and immediately surrounding spray, reducing contrast, clarity, saturation and sharpness across the rest of the image, each by 25. If I'd spent more time, I might have found that some of these were unnecessary, but they have the general effect of downplaying the sea.
I used an adjustment brush across the rest of the wake, increasing clarity by 57 - this may be a bit OTT, especially on such a small jpg.

Just one person's way of editing. I hope this helps, even if it helps you decide you don't like this approach
Comments welcome.

I truly appreciate your view and the detailed explanation of the steps you took. I am always looking for different techniques that could produce a pleasing result and although not all techniques are equally effective on all images, the more I learn how to apply them, them more successful the results can be. Thanks again Paul!