Paddler

[GBO25]

I'm not sure if I like this image or not. It may have artistic merit or it may not, I wouldn't know.
It was taken on the spur of the moment and shot into a setting sun before the colours became very gold.
Tamron 150-600 at 600mm, f8, 1/500, ISO 800, monopod.
I've fiddled with it to try to give it more "oomph" but this is about as good as it gets.
C& C welcome. My editing software is limited to PS Elements 10 & 13 plus Macphun Intensify.

[John 2]

I think it works Graham. I have a feeling (but I'm not sure) that it wouldn't have worked quite so well on the next stroke when the paddles were angled in the opposite direction. Just an idle thought.

[Shadowman]

I shoot kayakers all the time, to me the effort is more of an exercise in getting the shot. You won't get too much action from kayaker shots; unless they are going down rough waters or wearing vibrant colored outfits. Nice effort, you can't much more "oomph" with that muddy looking water.

[selig1656]

What caught my eye is that slight reflection on the kayak , a few more minutes with the golden sky might have been neat and added some warmth to the water . I would play with some cropping possibly to emphasize the subject and that sparkle on the kayak. Only my perspective as it is a nice capture.

[Manfred M]

Graham -let me throw a few thoughts at you.

First of all, this being a sunset shot, the white balance is really something that is up to you as the photographer. There are several different directions to take, the warm tone you took, but a cooler tone could work as well.

The other issue is that the paddler is back-lit, so you loose a lot of detail as well as; so he is actually a bit underexposed and has fairly low contrast. The other thing to think about is the vast expanse of water with nothing to anchor the viewer's eyes, so adding a vignette can help.

Two different views of how this image can look:

One that is closer to your original:

[


And the same image in a more neutral light.




There is no right or wrong answer here, but there are plenty of different ways to tackle this kind of image.

[IzzieK]

What caught my attention is the gold kayak...wish we can all have one...our kayak is made of strong plastic and will not hold any gold reflection from the sun at any given time but this one is good, the backlit is OK but I like Manfred's #1 edit best.

[Geoff F]

I would crop away a little of the out of focus foreground. It is distracting to my view of the main subject.

[rpcrowe]

When I first looked at this image, my idea was right along with Manfred's color balance and Geoff's crop ideas...

[TonyW]

Manfred, I think you have just come through a Canadian winter. The original colour looks appropriate to me for a setting sun in summer in Brisbane, although it is subjective as you suggest. I quite like the original version except that more detail of the kayaker's face would have been nice. It was perhaps too far away for that. The silvery reflection in the surface of the kayak is nice.

[GBO25]

Thanks all for the feedback.

Manfred I quite like your second adjustment and wonder what it might look like if I cloned that paddler into my edit; probably the paddler would look too bright.

Izzie my kayak is plastic as well but this guys was a fibreglass surf racing kayak.

Yes Geoff, it could easily take a bit more cropping.

As to the paddler's face and body it was naturally in shadow being back lit and I have already adjusted the exposure in those areas to get at least a little better detail.

Again thanks everyone.