Reflections on a boat; what more might I do?

[AndrewMcD]

The point of the image, apart from the lovely lines of the craft, is the reflection on the side. Using LR5 I selected a medium tone curve preset that enhances the reflections. I used the healing brush to remove a foot dangling from the dock. The dock with the foot is also responsible for the dirty brown reflections in the upper left corner. With my limited PP skills I used the healing brush to remove as much of the dirty brown reflection as I could; to the point where my intervention was becoming visually obnoxious. At that point I used the adjustment brush to lower the exposure in that area; all in an effort to place emphasis on the reflection on the side of the boat. I try to keep a light touch with my post processing as I learn to emphasize/balance the various elements in an image. Any advice to improve the image would be appreciated.
Thank you,
Andrew

[AB26]

Hi Andrew,
I think you have done pretty good here. You certainly achieved what you were aiming at. My eye is drawn to the bright reflection on the side of the boat. Very nice.

The “brown” patch in the upper left corner: Clone it out, you are not trying to mislead by cloning that out it is simply enhancing the image.

[jordand]

Nice photo, Andrew.Why don't you try to process it in black and white, leaving only a bit of red on the boards and waterline?Reflections are rather contrast than color, they will not suffer from the desaturation.

[dubaiphil]

Nice photo, Andrew.Why don't you try to process it in black and white, leaving only a bit of red on the boards and waterline?Reflections are rather contrast than color, they will not suffer from the desaturation.

I've just felt a shiver running down my spine

[pnodrog]

Like Andre I would like the brown post cloned out but I would also like to see what it looks like with the lighter water around the stern of the boat to be almost as dark as the rest of the water. The light water draws the eye up to the top left corner for no reward.

You have captured the boat and the reflections beautifully.

[jordand]

I've just felt a shiver running down my spine

A quick sketch of what I meant, just to illustrate the idea. Is it so awful?

[dubaiphil]

It's selective color - of course it's awful

[dubaiphil]

It's subjective of course, but defend these examples at your peril!


http://youarenotaphotographer.com/wp.../10/Killer.jpg

http://youarenotaphotographer.com/wp.../09/redarm.jpg

http://youarenotaphotographer.com/wp...-color-bad.jpg

http://youarenotaphotographer.com/wp...09/poowall.jpg

http://youarenotaphotographer.com/wp...4/nicelips.jpg

http://youarenotaphotographer.com/wp...ddingparty.jpg

http://youarenotaphotographer.com/wp...oomanyarms.jpg

[cliffmccartney]

Phil - I almost spewed my coffee on my screen. Ouch!

[AndrewMcD]

I think I was unclear in my original post; I did remove as much of the stain/reflection in the upper left corner as my skills would permit. I'm rather a novice using the Lightroom tools. I found that as I worked at removing reflections and stains I would reach a point where it was obvious the image had been modified, and poorly at that! Consequently I stopped short of getting it properly cleaned up. Thank you all for the comments and advice.

[pnodrog]

To do the subtle adjustments it is easier to use masks in photoshop. You could achieve more than you have using lightroom but it is simpler using photoshop. Below is the sort of thing I had in mind.




P.S. The diagonal composition you have works really well.

[Wavelength]

Nice image; lovely reflection patterns

[Shadowman]

It's subjective of course, but defend these examples at your peril!


http://youarenotaphotographer.com/wp.../10/Killer.jpg

http://youarenotaphotographer.com/wp.../09/redarm.jpg

http://youarenotaphotographer.com/wp...-color-bad.jpg

http://youarenotaphotographer.com/wp...09/poowall.jpg

http://youarenotaphotographer.com/wp...4/nicelips.jpg

http://youarenotaphotographer.com/wp...ddingparty.jpg

http://youarenotaphotographer.com/wp...oomanyarms.jpg

I don't know, strategically placed....

[jcuknz]

I am suprised that if the reflections were what attracted you why there is so much else in the picture. The whole boat interests me more than the reflections, cannot remember seeing that particular design except in a design book.