Solo Fisherman on an Island

[ShaneS]

I saw this gent standing on the shoreline of a little island and envisioned this shot in black & white from the beginning. I wanted to include the palm tree in the composition but I wonder if the fisherman is too small a part of the image.

I would also like feedback on the processing and conversion (SEP2).



I am really happy with the separation that I achieved between the fisherman and the background but wonder if it looks as if he is just plopped there rather than part of the scene due to my processing.

The floor is now yours...

[Stagecoach]

Well spotted composition Shane and the separation of the fisherman looks good to me. I'll leave commenting on the B&W conversion to others who are more practised with it.

Grahame

[bnnrcn]

Hi Shane I like the image . Does the tree look so tall because of a wide angle lens ? Your B&W conversion looks fine but I don't know if it can be improved more. I'm not very experienced in B&W either.

[Shadowman]

Shane,

Nicely done. Conversion looks fine, care to detail your steps leading up to the conversion and the shot also; it looks pretty windy out there?

[NorthernFocus]

Hi, Shane. The diminutive size of the fisherman in the frame emphasizes the sense of his being alone. At first I wasn't sure about the inclusion of the tree but after looking for a bit I think it has the same effect as well as providing a sense of peacefulness(even though logically it shows signs of windiness). I have mixed emotions about rendering scenes of paradise in B/W

[Mike Buckley]

It's fine for me that the fisherman is such a small portion of the image. That's because there is a sense of the vastness of the water unseen to the right and because the tree is so tall. Conversely, the small fisherman makes the tree look tall. Everything in that respect seems to be a good fit. Nice conversion too!

The only thing missing for me that would take the image to a higher level is if there was something unusual about the fisherman, such as posture or a bent fishing rod due to a fish being on the end of his line.

Binnur: Shane used a 55mm focal length on a camera with a 1.5 crop factor, so the focal length doesn't exaggerate the height of the tree.

[TonyW]

I like the picture and the composition with the tree. I wonder whether it would be better with less sharpening. When I enlarged it I thought I saw a halo around the man in particular which might be what makes him look as though he was pasted over the top.

[bnnrcn]

Thank you Mike What a tall tree

It's fine for me that the fisherman is such a small portion of the image. That's because there is a sense of the vastness of the water unseen to the right and because the tree is so tall. Conversely, the small fisherman makes the tree look tall. Everything in that respect seems to be a good fit. Nice conversion too!

The only thing missing for me that would take the image to a higher level is if there was something unusual about the fisherman, such as posture or a bent fishing rod due to a fish being on the end of his line.

Binnur: Shane used a 55mm focal length on a camera with a 1.5 crop factor, so the focal length doesn't exaggerate the height of the tree.

[ST1]

Well spotted and captured

[deetheturk]

Nice capture Shane

[ShaneS]

Thank you everyone! You know, I couldn't put into words what I saw in this scene that I liked but I knew I liked it...I wish I had you folks in my head when I was trying to give words to my images because you hit the nail on the head with your description of what I saw and felt. Maybe that is why I take pictures and don't write novels

But back to the image and the processing per John's request...

The scene was taken less than an hour before sunset with the sun coming from the right which provided some nice lighting on the man and the tree.

Settings were f9 1/125 at ISO 100 with matrix metering. I had my 18-55mm lens on the camera as I was going to take some wide angle shots of a nearby scene at sunset. I wanted to isolate the fisherman so 55mm was it unless I changed lenses. I still had to resort to a pretty severe crop where the bottom half of the image was essentially lost along with a bit of either side which resulted in an image of 1877 by 2347 in pixels or just shy or 6.3 by 7.8 inches at 300 ppi.

Here is the image that I started with (as you can see Dan the colors were kind of blah even though it is a tropical scene)



My PP was very minimal apart from eliminating the overhanging fronds of another palm tree from the image. After making my adjustment in ACR I simply cloned those out on a new layer in Photoshop CS5 and did my pre-sharpening before taking it into SEP2.

Here are the panels from both side by side:



In ACR I left the contrast curve at the preset medium.

I also used some control points in SEP2 to refine and add some structure to the man and the tree as well as a few adjustments to the sky. I then took it into Viveza to make some brightness adjustment to a few areas, most notable is the cloud behind the tree which came out darker that I liked on my SEP2 conversion. I probably could have made the adjustments in SEP2 but it was more intuitive to me to move it into Viveza as I already had a number of control points in SEP2 which made the other adjustments that I wanted to do a bit more work in that part of NIK. Lastly a final levels adjustment in Photoshop and I was done apart from the resizing and sharpening to post here.

Mike, my fisherman friend decided to sit down on the rocks immediately after I captured this shot. I took a few more but but this was the best of the lot.

He even looked smaller in relation to the overall scene when he was sitting Binnur

[Jeff S]

Aloha Shane,

I agree with your decision to convert to black and white. IMHO it makes a stronger image. I always fret about whether or not to show the tall palms when my subject is much smaller because I think the imbalance sometimes overpowers the subject. Half the time I keep the palm in the frame; half the time I get rid of it. I think I would have left it in this image, too.

As for the B&W, I'm not good enough at B&W to even offer an observation.

[Donald]

Everyone else has covered all the main points as to why this is a a very lovely image.

But just to give a slightly different 'twist' to why it is a such a good composition - There are 5 things in this image: A man, a tree, a spit of land, water and sky. That's it. It's so gloriously simple, it's wonderful. And it's how those 5 bits have been put together (composed), that makes it sing. And as for the relative sizes of the tree and the man, that's just brilliant.

[ShaneS]

Thank you Jeff and Donald. I feel that I am starting to break through what has been a very high barrier in terms of learning how to 'see' photographically and it really makes my day and boosts my confidence to read your comments (& those of others) in that regard.

Aloha and Mahalo Nui Loa (thank you very much in Hawaiian)!

[Brownbear]

Hi Shane,

Just to say that I think it is a beautiful image. I adore the lone tall palm and man, and tall sky. I prefer the b&w image to the colour...

[ShaneS]

Thanks Christina. I always intended the image to be in black and white and only posted the color version in response to a question by John about PP.

[Brownbear]

Thanks for sharing. I stated my preference only because I usually prefer colour. I think I'm beginning to develop an appreciation for b&w through images like yours.

Thanks Christina. I always intended the image to be in black and white and only posted the color version in response to a question by John about PP.

[ied]

A beautiful capture. I like the simplicity of it.


Irene

[ShaneS]

Thanks Irene and Christina

[IzzieK]

Well as usual, I am late to this party and I read in part what Donald said and I completely agree with his assessment. Before I saw the colour version, I was thinking of commenting on #1 but now that I saw the colour version, I couldn't choose which one is better. Both are equally as good. No doubt about that in my mind and no matter where you take Donald's comments, it is still the same assessment of the quality of work you did here not only in your PP but also in your camera for a start. Good job, Shane....