Beach scenes - suggestions and critique please

[TonyW]

1. Early morning surf

056A5162 on Flickr

2. Dead wood

056A5153c on Flickr

3. A clear day
056A5178 on Flickr


4. Looking towards Byron Bay. The headland at Byron Bay is the most easterly point of Australia.

056A5176 on Flickr

[DickyOZ]

I really like the mood of the first two. The third shot has a nice balance. The last shot (Ithought I recognised that beach!) I would have cropped a little closer to the sunbakers and shown a bit more sky.

[Rob Ekins]

Tony,

I really like #4, it has the potential to be the quintessential Aussie beach shot, if you get the chance to re shoot it I would get down lower and use a longer focal length.

Byron is a great spot, are you on holidays there?

[Dave Humphries]

Hi Tony,

I do like #1; the grouping of people and the wave in the foreground, the sunlight, etc.

The only minor issue I have with it is a feeling that I'd have liked the subjects to be slightly further right in the frame, I say this because they are (kinda) forming a procession moving from right to left and (I feel) they need a tad more space 'in front' of them than behind.

To address this for this shot; you could crop a little off the right hand edge, but that spoils the aspect ratio (AR), ideally I'd have liked to see a little more on the left hand side to maintain the AR, not sure whether your SOOC frame has any more to give that side (even if it meant cloning out part of a limb or surf board from another person that would otherwise encroach in to the shot).

Unfortunately #2 doesn't work for me as shot; the foreground "Dead wood" is distributed across the horizon. I wonder whether (despite imagined difficulty) you could have shot from lower or higher to avoid this? (perhaps you even have another shot) It is particularly a problem where the branches are in front of the darker dune grasses. I tried to see if there was another crop possible; it is better without the lower limb (I think), but that area of grasses becomes even more of an issue then

With #3, my overall thought is; 'nice idea, but too central'. The technique required for this type of scene is to identify the possibility, set and hold focus and exposure, recompose (think 'rule of thirds' if nothing else), wait for the wave; then capture the splash. I believe this would be better if the rocky outcrop where say 15% more to right of frame and the horizon somewhat higher in the composition. Again, if the scene before you meant this included something you didn't want, that might be easily removed in PP by cloning. In this instance, you could crop the shot (top and right sides) to address my thoughts - at least try it by moving the image when viewed in LyteBox here at CiC, if nothing else.

I like the positioning of the two groups of people and the distant rocks/islands/headland (* delete as appropriate). I just wonder whether there was a slightly better moment in time to press the shutter - one that avoids the girl peeling off her T-shirt and with a wave above the left hand group that didn't carry the eye out of frame to the left due to the broad white bit there. That said, the girl and her T-shirt removal does lend the impression of 'action' to the left hand group to counter the 'relaxation' of the right hand pair, so perhaps just the wave is the real issue and since you couldn't wait for that to change while also capturing the moment with the T-shirt, you did as well as was possible. Your timing in respect of not having a bright wave immediately behind the left hand group is good though. I suppose one option might be to try and clone out the broader left hand wave entirely - I'm just thinking out loud here. I appreciate cloning is not for everyone.

Good exposure and natural white balance in all, well done - also, none of the horizons shout 'not level' to me.

I hope you find my ramblings useful, Dave

[Shadowman]

Nice set, good compositions and good use of elements.

[Wavelength]

Very nice set of images

[Mike Buckley]

My take:

#1, #2 and #4 are very nicely composed, especially with the several layers in #1. I also like the spatial relationship in #4 between the two groups of people and the distant land formation. Use of the foreground tree in #2 is perfect for me, though I would digitally remove the person that is partially obscured by the tree. The composition in #3 is neither bad nor compelling, rendering the image like a typical tourist's snapshot and not at all in the same league as most of your photos. Using a long focal length that fills the frame with the rock formation and the high splash of water would make a dynamic action shot.

Nice toning in #2.

I'm guessing that the first photo was shot early in the morning or late in the afternoon. If I'm right, perhaps the reflection on the water would have been at least golden if not orange. Maybe your white balance is off and is the reason the reflection appears white.

The exposure of #2 is low by about 1/2 stop and is low in #4 by at least 2/3 stop and probably a full stop. Check your histogram immediately after shooting and retake the image if needed, as is the case in those two images. Also keep an eye on your histogram as you post-process your images. In #2, I would adjust the white point to display data all the way to the right side of the histogram and I would adjust the curve to brighten the bright tones and increase mid-tone contrast. In #4, I would adjust the white and black points to display data all the way from left to right on the histogram. I would then increase mid-tone contrast a little but without overdoing it.

[Geoff F]

I seem to be roughly in agreement with previous comments, Tony.

#1 is a tricky light angle but it does appear a lot better in the larger Lightbox view.

#2 is a somewhat somber scene and I did wonder about brightening the highlights a little but the left hand sky already has patches which could easily over expose; so I think I would probably leave it as a rather melancholy scene.

Nothing wrong with #3 technically speaking, but nothing overly inspiring either. Maybe a slightly different crop so the rock wasn't so central?

#4 is good but the two groups of people have a little bit too much space between them. Possibly, as an alternative, crop a fraction from the right side and, I suppose, a similar amount from the top?

[bnnrcn]

I especially like #1 Tony

[Round Tuit]

Hi Tony,

I don't have much to add to the excellent comments that you got above. I just wanted to say that when I saw #4, my first reaction was to turn it into B & W except for the red umbrella - just for fun.

Andre

[TonyW]

Thanks everyone for the very useful comments.

Rob, we had a family gathering over Christmas and New Year at New Brighton where these pictures were taken. Returning to the scene is not an option and in any case the conditions change continuously so that nothing could be repeated exactly.

Dave, thanks for your extensive comments. The original for #1 had more to the left and I could add space there. The composition is a little compromised because I tried to keep the 3:2 aspect ratio. I didn't want more sky or more sand. There is a tighter crop for #2 cutting off the lower branch and some of the right side and I will investigate that. I agree that #3 is too central and I also agree with Mike that it is not compelling as a subject. At the time, I was concentrating on the water breaking over the rock. In #4, I don't mind the girl taking of her t-shirt s it adds a little action. If I eliminate the wave near that group I think it would be too sparse and with it that area is a bit too busy. I agree with Geoff that the two groups of people are too far apart but I don't see how i could have avoided that.

Mike, the first photo was taken early in the morning (we are on the east coast). With regard to the exposure, I think I mostly had enough room to adjust. I like the darker look with #2 but I agree that I misjudged with #4. With #1, I prefer the copper hue to the gold that one might expect but I did not see. Something closer to a neutral hue was what I wanted and I deliberately went for the silhouette look with the people. The brightest part of the reflection is white because it is actually blown out but that does not bother me too much in this case because of the neutral look of the rest of the image.

Andre, I thought the same about #4 but have not got around to try it yet.

[Dave A]

My favorites are 2 and 4, nice series.

Dave

[Mike Buckley]

Mike...With regard to the exposure, I think I mostly had enough room to adjust.

Not mostly. Entirely.

The brightest part of the reflection [in #1] is white because it is actually blown out but that does not bother me too much in this case because of the neutral look of the rest of the image.

My software indicates that very, very little is blown, certainly not enough to be concerned with in my mind. The glare on the water is simply a direct reflection of the sun. It looks very natural to me, just not the color I expected.

[Manfred M]

Tony - check your histograms and adjust. You'd get stronger images in shots 2 - 4 if you fixed the tonal range "issues".

[TonyW]

Thanks Manfred. I started again by checking my monitor calibration which proved to be good but then I got confused about what I should be getting. I will have to come back later with a fresh look.

[Manfred M]

Thanks Manfred. I started again by checking my monitor calibration which proved to be good but then I got confused about what I should be getting. I will have to come back later with a fresh look.

Tony - it has nothing to do with your screen's adjustment, but rather the tonal distribution of the image. If you look at the image you have posted, it looks rather dull. The white in the water looks gray and if you look at the black bathing suits and sampled them, I think you will find that they are gray, not black.






If you go ahead and clamp the black and white points, the image will get a lot more pop and the blacks and whites will lose the gray tones. All of a sudden, it looks like the beach on a bright and sunny day. You might have to adjust the midpoint as well to ensure that the overall look and feel are right.




The histogram on the revised image shows the expanded tonal range.




Please note the images with the histograms are screen captures and a lot of colour gets lost in the process.

[IzzieK]

My favs are #1 and #4...Byron Beach is certainly one of the places to go ...