Need Critique on Mayflower ship at sunrise, and beach waves during storm.

[Nancy Moran G]

Hello all,
Since I travel in our RV, I do not get unlimited data and uploading photos costs me big time. I am sometimes no where near a McD, and don"t want to be. ( plus i do not want to sit in a business for a couple of hours) I do frequent libraries when available.
But I need to start uploading to learn. I Just got PSE 11 TODAY, and these 2 photos have MINOR adjustments as I did not want to mess anything up. My 1st photos taken as Raw.

1 ~ Cape Cod rare waves!



2 ~ Mayflower Replica at sunrise


Do not throw me out of the Forum as I see I have some ocean (bay) spray on lens. We do not get waves here on Cape Cod Bay. This was very unusual unless it is winter.

The Mayflower has a giant spotlight that I could only take at this angle. the light is hidden by the mast, but you still might see a smidgin of it in the middle of ship.

Hope you that are "across the Pond" appreciate our Mayflower replica. It is in Plymouth, Ma, USA harbor. It came back from several months of repairs in New Bedford. They had to find the similar type wood to repair it, and the tree came from Wisconsin. ( don"t ask me!)
The day it came thru the Cape Cod Canal, the shores were lined with many families of 3 generations to see it. It was very exciting. That is where I volunteered this summer in exchange for hook ups, and all the striped bass we could catch, lobster we could trap, and clams we could dig! And they paid us a small stipend...holy cow its heaven.

Ok, I am ready for some critique.
Thank you,
Nancy

[Digital]

Nancy, the first pic looks nice; IMHO it appears flat. The second photo is unique (my word of the day) because of the lighting.
btw - good narrative.


Bruce

[Nancy Moran G]

Flat, yup, what page in the manual is that on? HA....

any suggestions appreciated.
Nancy

[Brownbear]

Hi Nancy,

I love the silky water and the composition of the first image. For some reason I think the water could be sharper but that kind defeats the purpose of silky water so I'm not sure. Someone mentioned to me that some of my images looked a little flat, so I looked it up and learned that I need to add more contrast to my images.

I think the 2nd image is gorgeous. The light and the colours of the boat are stunning... Beautiful focus, colours and detail. I don't know what type of mood you are trying to convey but for some reason I feel that the water and sky could be a bit lighter. I adore this image but can only offer my personal opinion since my experience is lacking here... But I do adore this image!

[Nancy Moran G]

Thank you Christina.
I am going back 1 day, a little later to get more sunrise. I had to leave this location before the sun rose.
will look into contrast helping my flat -ness in my image.
thanks,
Nancy

[Brownbear]

Hi Nancy,

Wait to hear from others. I'm not positive about flatness and contrast, and have little experience with landscapes... It might just be that a little processing is needed.

Thank you Christina.
I am going back 1 day, a little later to get more sunrise. I had to leave this location before the sun rose.
will look into contrast helping my flat -ness in my image.
thanks,
Nancy

[Digital]

Nancy, I did some minor adjustments (contrast, exposure, curves) in LR to your photo. To me it looks better; I did not want to post it because I did not have your permission to.


Bruce

[Nancy Moran G]

Bruce (et all),
Please, post away! Am curious what it can become as I really liked the waves I caught. I took many others and did not get this much 'action'. When I used my 55-300, to get tighter on red buoy, I lost most of the wave action.
Still learning.
N

[Digital]

Nancy, here is the edited version. Someone in CiC maybe able to do better.

[Brownbear]

Looks great!

Nancy, here is the edited version. Someone in CiC maybe able to do better.

[Nancy Moran G]

Thank you Bruce, yes it looks great.
Sorry for my delay answering, I was out of communique for Fri- Sat.
Looking forward to more help in my photography!
Nancy

[Brownbear]

I'm just bumping this because I think the images Nancy posted here are lovely... with the hope that some experienced landscape photographers will offer her some C&C, and post processing tips.

[Dave Humphries]

Hi Nancy,

You might want to try Local Contrast Enhancement (LCE) as a method to give more structure to both the clouds and the water.

Cheers,

[Nancy Moran G]

Thank you Dave, ( and Christina for the bump)
I just got the PSE 11 as my first pp product, to say I am learning it, would be a huge understatement!
Would it be called LCE in my program, or any other insight is helpful in pp, or in how I shot it in the first place!
Thanks, Nancy

[Brownbear]

Hi Nancy,

The link Dave included explains LCE... In Elements you will find it under the enhance menu on the top menu bar, unsharp mask and LCE is just the numbers you use in the unsharp mask to apply local contrast, sharpening effect.

Thank you Dave, ( and Christina for the bump)
I just got the PSE 11 as my first pp product, to say I am learning it, would be a huge understatement!
Would it be called LCE in my program, or any other insight is helpful in pp, or in how I shot it in the first place!
Thanks, Nancy

[Dave Humphries]

Thanks Christina,

Yes Nancy, it is where Christina says.

Starting values in UnSharp Mask, to see an effect on the original image #1 you posted above would be;
Amount 20%
Radius 150 px
Threshold 0 (always 0 for LCE)

But have a play with the numbers for Amount and Radius, also on other pictures, the numbers may need to be different to achieve "best" results - where "best" means not losing highlight or shadow detail by applying too much amount.

The typical range of values I use might be;
Amount: somewhere between 5% and 25%, use steps of 5% to gauge changes
Radius: somewhere between 50 and 300 pixels, use steps of 10px if below 100px and 20px if above

Using too small a radius (say, less than 50) may give a visible 'soft halo' effect around high contrast transitions, especially when combined with a high amount (say more than 15%).

Small print
At the risk of over complicating things; I have found that the 'best' radius is also affected by when (in your workflow) LCE is applied; before or after downsizing (for web use), and if before downsizing, then how much downsizing will be done. I usually do mine before downsizing and use a pretty large radius, say 300px, to avoid the halo issues and just vary the amount to achieve the desired enhancement.

That said, I don't think you did (as you should for best sharpness) downsize these before posting. Have a read of this post for the how and why of downsizing before web display.

Cheers,

[Nancy Moran G]

Thank you Dave for informative post.
I have a disconnect in that I read the forums on my IPad on our Rv kitchen table, but to use pp, I have to get out my laptop and make room....so when replying I have not usually gotten to look at pp first.
Know that sounds funny but...today I will go up to camp clubhouse and try this out.
Thanks Dave and Christina.
Nancy