Heading Out To Wait For Waves

[ilovelucydog]

I haven't had my camera out of the bag for... weeks and weeks. I have a really hard time with processing RAW... is it too dark? too bright? over exposed? under exposed? etc., etc. Too me they look noisy? Too much black? Too bright? Over sharpened? Clueless in Virginia Beach...

[Peter Ryan]

I new your cousin - Sleepless....

Hi Mary,

We are talking processing here and it is a bit hard because I do not know what program you use and also I do not know the histogram of the original shot but it looks nice and sharp but the colour seems a bit saturated. I am not sure if you have added too much contrast or played around with the saturation. I generally find if you get the contrast right you do not need much variation to colour. I agree it looks a bit dark. Using the Fill Light slider would brighten the darker areas without affecting the white of the waves.

Like composition generally less is more when it comes to processing.

[ilovelucydog]

I new your cousin - Sleepless....

Hi Mary,

We are talking processing here and it is a bit hard because I do not know what program you use and also I do not know the histogram of the original shot but it looks nice and sharp but the colour seems a bit saturated. I am not sure if you have added too much contrast or played around with the saturation. I generally find if you get the contrast right you do not need much variation to colour. I agree it looks a bit dark. Using the Fill Light slider would brighten the darker areas without affecting the white of the waves.

Like composition generally less is more when it comes to processing.

I am using Lightroom 3... I have no idea how to show the histogram?

Here is another try... I added some fill light and knocked down the contrast.

[ilovelucydog]

Uh Oh... I think I know what's happening... this was one of the first shots today... for some reason my camera was set on jpeg fine and not RAW or RAW + jpeg... this started out as a jpeg... some of the later ones are turning out much better... one should always look at the settings.

[Peter Ryan]

HiMary,

I am sorry but I do not know the commands in Lightroom. I think it gets to a point where it is best to start again. Trying to adjust or undo what you have done is just too hard.

The whites look ok and I don't think the blacks are an issue either. I think the glare off the water has caused the shot to underexposue a bit so I would try using the Balance or midtone slider (being an Adobe product I assume they use similar terms) which will brighten the mid tones without blowing out the highlights (whites), then add a touch of contrast and sharpening and see how you go.

No saturation at this stage just move the mid-tone slider and a small amount of contrast and sharening.

[ilovelucydog]

HiMary,

I am sorry but I do not know the commands in Lightroom. I think it gets to a point where it is best to start again. Trying to adjust or undo what you have done is just too hard.

The whites look ok and I don't think the blacks are an issue either. I think the glare off the water has caused the shot to underexposue a bit so I would try using the Balance or midtone slider (being an Adobe product I assume they use similar terms) which will brighten the mid tones without blowing out the highlights (whites), then add a touch of contrast and sharpening and see how you go.

No saturation at this stage just move the mid-tone slider and a small amount of contrast and sharening.

Thank you, Peter. I will restart tomorrow... after I've got my token 3 1/2 hours sleep.

[Geoff F]

The blue of the sea is wrong, Mary, and that is throwing everything else off. Attempting correction just makes matters worse.

I suffer a lot from over blue sea troubles and the only partial answer I have been able to find is to set the sea colour first.

Not having Lightroom, I start, after converting from Raw with a general WB to suit the overall scene and use Curves on the blue channel. Slightly reduce the blue shadows. Drag the blue channel bottom left corner of the diagonal line very slightly to the right. The exact amount is critical.

You should lose the excessive blue but not turn too greenish. Then adjust the overall brightness levels to suit the scene.

Sometimes, I may also slightly reduce the blue channel saturation.

If anybody else has any better methods for reducing the excessive blue effect I will be pleased to hear of them. But I have tried a lot of solutions and this is the only one which, so far, works for me.

For my tastes, Mary, your first photo is almost there. Just slightly too blue and a bit high in overall saturation.

[ilovelucydog]

The blue of the sea is wrong, Mary, and that is throwing everything else off. Attempting correction just makes matters worse.

I suffer a lot from over blue sea troubles and the only partial answer I have been able to find is to set the sea colour first.

Not having Lightroom, I start, after converting from Raw with a general WB to suit the overall scene and use Curves on the blue channel. Slightly reduce the blue shadows. Drag the blue channel bottom left corner of the diagonal line very slightly to the right. The exact amount is critical.

You should lose the excessive blue but not turn too greenish. Then adjust the overall brightness levels to suit the scene.

Sometimes, I may also slightly reduce the blue channel saturation.

If anybody else has any better methods for reducing the excessive blue effect I will be pleased to hear of them. But I have tried a lot of solutions and this is the only one which, so far, works for me.

For my tastes, Mary, your first photo is almost there. Just slightly too blue and a bit high in overall saturation.

Thank you, Geoff. I wish I had checked my settings on my camera. For some reason it was set to jpeg. I'll work on it some more. Fortunately we live at the beach and I'll have more opportunity to take some shots. Thank you for the tip. I struggle with the ocean, sand, waves...

[ilovelucydog]

Here is another try... is it too flat... too bright?

[Geoff F]

That looks fine to me, Mary.

One other tip that I use, although it doesn't really apply here.

Often when I sharpen a 'seascape' photo the waves get too 'strong' so I sharpen on a layer then add a mask. Editing the mask with a soft low opacity brush will 'remove' the sharpening from any oversharpened areas of sea.

[ilovelucydog]

That looks fine to me, Mary.

One other tip that I use, although it doesn't really apply here.

Often when I sharpen a 'seascape' photo the waves get too 'strong' so I sharpen on a layer then add a mask. Editing the mask with a soft low opacity brush will 'remove' the sharpening from any oversharpened areas of sea.

Thank you, Geoff. I usually use a mask for a sharpening layer as well... but I was lazy, and totally frustrated with the whole water thing.