Isolating the subject, or maybe not

[Stagecoach]

Nice images

Thank you Nandakumar

[Brownbear]

Just to say that I adore both of these for the light (especially on the men's faces) and the scene. With the 2nd being my favourite for the blue colours with the men looking right at you, and the flying fish - spectacular moment! Mind you, I also love the surf line seen in the 1st image.

[MrB]

I like the sea in the first for the surf in the background, and the positioning of the fishermen in the boat of the second. If they were mine, I'd have a go at combining those two features, in addition to a bit of fill-light on the figures and cropping out a bit of the OOF foreground.

E.g. An edited composite of surf from 1 and scene from 2:



(Let me know if you want this image deleted.)

Cheers
Philip

[JBW]

So how did I do and what could improve/is not good on these two examples?

No 2 - 1/800, f/8, ISO1800, 550mm (exposed to the far right)


Grahame[/QUOTE]

Grahame, if it was my shot I would put it into Gimp and concentrate on sharpening and edge detecting the boat and the men.


after I isolated them I added an NL filter and a neon edge detect.

[Stagecoach]

Just to say that I adore both of these for the light (especially on the men's faces) and the scene. With the 2nd being my favourite for the blue colours with the men looking right at you, and the flying fish - spectacular moment! Mind you, I also love the surf line seen in the 1st image.

Hi Christina,

Thank you for commenting and I'm pleased you like them. In all the times I have watched these guys even in closer I had never noticed any fish jumping around the nets so that one was a first for me and something to look out for next try.

One practice they use is to beat the water with the punt pole to drive the fish towards the closing net and it's on my wish list to capture the water spray from this with the sunlight behind

Grahame

[Stagecoach]

E.g. An edited composite of surf from 1 and scene from 2:



(Let me know if you want this image deleted.)

Cheers
Philip

Philip, for me modifying an image to the extent of physically adding something which was not there to enhance it is crossing the line with land/seascapes.

With respect to the crop of the foreground water and lightening up of the subjects any advantage obtained I believe has been counteracted by the reduction of image IQ which I found was the case even with working on the original RAW as it had to be significantly cropped.

[Stagecoach]

So how did I do and what could improve/is not good on these two examples?

No 2 - 1/800, f/8, ISO1800, 550mm (exposed to the far right)


Grahame

Grahame, if it was my shot I would put it into Gimp and concentrate on sharpening and edge detecting the boat and the men.


after I isolated them I added an NL filter and a neon edge detect.

Interesting Brian,

My original concerns with these images was with regard to the separation of the subject from the scene due to it being shot at rather extreme conditions. The consensus of opinion seemed to be to lighten the people but the high ISO used and heavy cropping was not favourable to enable pushing this.

I very much like what you have done here Brian, the image has more punch and separation that has been achieved without simply brightening the subjects.

As for your additional sharpening, I can not see any more obvious signs to it than what were on the original so that has also worked well !

I have not yet played with or looked at any 'filter' options in PS but I will do now

Grahame

[plugsnpixels]

Great shots! My very first impression was the extreme right placement of the subjects, which follows the Rule Of Thirds horizontally but not vertically. Even so, the horizontal imbalance is drawing too much attention to itself. But centering the boat doesn't work at all.

Perhaps if the cropping were more extreme (lop off much of the empty top and bottom and maybe a bit from the left for a strong horizontal strip) it would work better (and address some peoples' concern about the DOF issue)?

[JBW]

Hi Grahame, glad to been a help.

[Stagecoach]

Great shots!

Than your Mike

My very first impression was the extreme right placement of the subjects, which follows the Rule Of Thirds horizontally but not vertically.

I'm not sure I understand 'the extreme right placement of the subjects' on the horizontal because for me I considered the net, the jumping fish and fishermen as subjects, perhaps all equally important in the scene. I did consciously place the fish and centre fisherman on the horizontal thirds which luckily tied in with the amount I could safely crop.

Even so, the horizontal imbalance is drawing too much attention to itself. But centering the boat doesn't work at all.

Fully agree that centering the boat does not work, which would leave too much of an unbalanced empty area to the right.

Perhaps if the cropping were more extreme (lop off much of the empty top and bottom and maybe a bit from the left for a strong horizontal strip) it would work better

Cropping more from the image top and bottom would reduce the IQ too much. Perhaps I am too hard on myself at times in that if I can not produce an image, 1400 px wide of which meets my IQ requirements it ends up in the bin (unless it is a very rare masterpiece).

(and address some peoples' concern about the DOF issue)?

Unfortunately DOF was very much determined by subject and shooting conditions. I had estimated that to freeze a jumping fish I would need to be getting towards BIF speeds, I was opened as wide as possible, ISO was high for something I knew I would need to significantly crop and I was using a TC of which is also going to degrade things slightly.

Stopping down at the expense of speed or ISO to increase DOF would of most likely given an unusable image.

Ideally, I would like to capture both boat and surf line within the DOF but I think that's going to take considerable practice and luck

[Brownbear]

Hi Grahame,

Sorry that I haven't been around much, sometimes work takes up way too much of my time.

Sounds like a magical scene... Your wish is my command!

PS I've decided that the 1st image is my favourite because of the pose of the fisherman standing on the edge of the boat (towards the center of the image), and the surf line and the light on the men's faces. The beautiful blues and jumping fish swayed me momentarily so I've changed my mind. That said, both are truly gorgeous images.

Hi Christina,

Thank you for commenting and I'm pleased you like them.
One practice they use is to beat the water with the punt pole to drive the fish towards the closing net and it's on my wish list to capture the water spray from this with the sunlight behind

Grahame