The Photograper, the Fisherman and the Boat

[dje]

Given some of the wonderfull golden hour shots lately, this is perhaps a bit of a suicide mission. Anyway here is my latest attempt at a sunrise shot over a jetty. I did some a few weeks ago and this was a follow up visit yesterday - trying to improve the composition.

The conditions weren't particularly favourable (not much cloud, bit hazy, water not dead calm) however this is what I came up with. I could have got rid of the photographer, fisherman and boat but I thought they might add a bit of character.

Feedback always welcome, thanks for viewing

Dave

Click on image for best viewing

[Bobobird]

This is a beautiful image. Balanced and not overly saturated. Great shot.

[Colin Southern]

Hi Dave,

Great shot

As an alternative composition, try cropping so that the jetty takes up 85 to 90% of the horizontal axis (and then trim a bit of the bottom to balance the aspect ratio). Also, the midtones are looking a bit flat on my screen (might be my screen - kids have been "playing", so just about to reprofile) - might possibly benefit from raising the black clipping point slightly?

[dje]

This is a beautiful image. Balanced and not overly saturated. Great shot.

Thanks Bobo

[dje]

Hi Dave,

Great shot

As an alternative composition, try cropping so that the jetty takes up 85 to 90% of the horizontal axis (and then trim a bit of the bottom to balance the aspect ratio). Also, the midtones are looking a bit flat on my screen (might be my screen - kids have been "playing", so just about to reprofile) - might possibly benefit from raising the black clipping point slightly?

Thanks Colin. Something like this ? It certainly gives more focus on the jetty and I think I prefer this crop.

[Dave Humphries]

Hi Dave,

I think Colin may have a point on the composition, playing with it here, just by zooming browser and positioning, I might not go quite as far as 90%.

My thoughts are the boat is a distraction, but the 'tog and 'model' (how are we to know it's a fisherman ) could provide useful human interest - but you would need to fix the CA in the 'tog and his wares.

EDIT: I see another version has appeared while I typed!

HTH,

[Colin Southern]

Thanks Colin. Something like this ? It certainly gives more focus on the jetty and I think I prefer this crop.

Yep

[dje]

Hi Dave,

I think Colin may have a point on the composition, playing with it here, just by zooming browser and positioning, I might not go quite as far as 90%.

My thoughts are the boat is a distraction, but the 'tog and 'model' (how are we to know it's a fisherman ) could provide useful human interest - but you would need to fix the CA in the 'tog and his wares.

EDIT: I see another version has appeared while I typed!

HTH,

Thanks for the comment Dave. You're quite right, it's not obvious he's a fisherman (you'll just have to take my word for it ). Sorry , I'm probably missing the bleeding obvious, but I'm not sure what you mean by "fix the CA"

[GeorgeM]

I like the cropped version. Very nice.

[jeeperman]

This latest version is quite nice. Just a thought for your next visit, if the water is again calm {or not} you might try long exposure. I am betting it would have added a little flavour to the water.....though that flavour is not for everyone. Beautiful shot none the less!

[dje]

Thanks George and Paul for your comments.

I take your point about the water Paul. I dont mind blurry water in the right scene. Not sure how it would have gone with this one. The water was reasonably calm but not as still as a "mill-pond". I shot this with f/13, 1/25 and ISO 100. So there was a reasonable amount of light for sunrise and I would have had to go to something like f/22 to get any sort of longish exposure.

Cheers Dave

[Dave Humphries]

Sorry , I'm probably missing the bleeding obvious, but I'm not sure what you mean by "fix the CA"

Hi Dave,

I mean the red/cyan edges either side of him.



It is a common lens defect called Chromatic Abberation (CA), you'll find that if he'd been on the far right, the coloured edges would be reversed. It shouldn't happen in the middle of an image, but gets worse the further you move from the centre, so only the corners would be worse than this, as he's right on the edge of the longest side. On some lenses it may be yellow/blue, while others green/magenta (purple), the latter looks awful in trees branches against a sky as the magenta being opposite to the foliage stands out. Most noticeable on high contrast edges like this.

Some RAW converters fix it automatically, others can do it on demand, but I often do it by simply wiping a desaturation brush set to 100% over the offending edge (usually at 200% magnification to ensure accuracy), but that's not really an option here due to the coloured sky and sea. Best done before sharpening.

Cheers,

[dje]

Thank you Dave. My education continues !

[Colin Southern]

Thanks George and Paul for your comments.

I take your point about the water Paul. I dont mind blurry water in the right scene. Not sure how it would have gone with this one. The water was reasonably calm but not as still as a "mill-pond". I shot this with f/13, 1/25 and ISO 100. So there was a reasonable amount of light for sunrise and I would have had to go to something like f/22 to get any sort of longish exposure.

Cheers Dave

Hi Dave,

If you're after a long exposure then you pretty much have to go for the smallest aperture you have (prob F22) - the lowest ISO - and add any ND filters that you might own. Personally I don't hesitate to use F22 or even F32 if I need it; some will scream "oh the diffraction, oh the diffraction", but you won't notice it unless you're pixel-peeping - and by the time you down-sample the image for online display the diffraction will long have been sampled out.

The other way to get a "long exposure" if you don't have an ND filter is to simply take multiple shots (assuming you have a tripod) and combine them in post processing; simply add up all the exposure times (eg if you're shooting at 1/5 sec and you want a 10 second exposure, just take 50 of them).

[Dave Humphries]

Thank you Dave. My education continues !

I feel a bit rotten now, I've given you something else to worry about

[Colin Southern]

I feel a bit rotten now, I've given you something else to worry about

I'll bet not 1/2 as rotten as certain rugby teams right now - All Blacks demolished the French last night

[dje]

I'll bet not 1/2 as rotten as certain rugby teams right now - All Blacks demolished the French last night

Well lets wait and see how it all pans out shall we ? (that's if we get past the semis !)

Thanks for your advice on exposure time etc.