Ship alongside the dock

[Rufus]

Could I improve this image? So far I gave performed general edits (eg crop, sharpen) and removed a distant aircraft that caught the eye. I also removed a vertical post in the water as it divided the ship's hull.

I considered cropping the partial crane on the right, but that would cut into the ship.

The image has a good distribution of all shades of grey. Are there areas I should be dodging and burning? The area around the ship's bridge is lighter and draws the eye a little but on the other hand it helps the viewer identify that there is a ship as well cranes in the picture.

Would another title be more appropriate?

[pschlute]

I will wait for others to comment on dodging/burning, as I generally move the curves around until I see something that I like.

I would point out though that you appear to have a number of spots in the sky that could be dust spots on the sensor, or birds caught in flight. I would remove them.

[Rufus]

...I would point out though that you appear to have a number of spots in the sky that could be dust spots on the sensor, or birds caught in flight. I would remove them.

Thank you Peter for your comments. I have now taken out a number of darker spots.

For some reason, Tinypic is not allowing me upload the revised image at present.

[Manfred M]

Had you not mentioned the ship, I would have thought this image was all about the dock cranes as they dominate this image. The ship itself gets swallowed up by the background as the tones that low down in the image are all fairly close.

My first step when I run into this is to look at what the colour image looks like and either leave it as a colour one or to get into the the individual colour channels and tweak them to bring out the subject a bit more. Often this will require selectively applying this to the appropriate parts of the image.

Dodging and burning is also an option. Dodging the ship to brighten it up might be worth trying too,

TinyPic seems to be acting up for me too right now.

[Geoff F]

It looks OK for contrast, when seen with the Lightbox view, but the right side crane is distracting. I think I would try to crop close to the ship's stern and clone out any remaining bits of crane. Maybe end up as 5 x 4 ratio? But you are already very tight at the top and bottom so I wouldn't want to lose anything from either one.

[Shadowman]

Don't know what the original looks like that inspired this particular crop but it is a bit tight on top, agree that this is more about the cranes than a ship.

[Rufus]

Don't know what the original looks like that inspired this particular crop but it is a bit tight on top...

There is nothing else at the top of the frame in the original so I will try extending the image with content aware fill. I have so far done this only with plain sky so it will be interesting to find out how well Photoshop deals with a cloudy sky.

The crop is a bit tight at the bottom, but as the tide was out a foreground band of mud did not seem appealing so I plumped for a crop that made it appear that the tide was in. I will try different crops when I re-process the image.

[Shadowman]

There is nothing else at the top of the frame in the original so I will try extending the image with content aware fill. I have so far done this only with plain sky so it will be interesting to find out how well Photoshop deals with a cloudy sky.

The crop is a bit tight at the bottom, but as the tide was out a foreground band of mud did not seem appealing so I plumped for a crop that made it appear that the tide was in. I will try different crops when I re-process the image.

Content aware should work.

[Rufus]

It looks OK for contrast, when seen with the Lightbox view, but the right side crane is distracting. I think I would try to crop close to the ship's stern and clone out any remaining bits of crane. Maybe end up as 5 x 4 ratio? But you are already very tight at the top and bottom so I wouldn't want to lose anything from either one.

I was not happy with the crane on the right, Geoff, but didn't want to crop into the ship. I have been trying to implement your suggestion of cropping to the stern and removing the remainder of the crane. I have tried a mixture of cloning and the spot healing brush but clouds seem a tricky things to clone. I shall have to have (yet) another attempt.

[Rufus]

Had you not mentioned the ship, I would have thought this image was all about the dock cranes as they dominate this image. The ship itself gets swallowed up by the background as the tones that low down in the image are all fairly close.

My first step when I run into this is to look at what the colour image looks like and either leave it as a colour one or to get into the the individual colour channels and tweak them to bring out the subject a bit more. Often this will require selectively applying this to the appropriate parts of the image.

Dodging and burning is also an option. Dodging the ship to brighten it up might be worth trying too,

TinyPic seems to be acting up for me too right now.

Having followed the recent thread about "Shoes" I thought I should mention the ship in the title to draw attention to it as a secondary area of the image. If there had been some obvious activity related to loading/unloading the ship I could have used a title like "Cranes loading a ship". As there is no obvious activity perhaps "Dockside Cranes" would be a better title.

I have been trying out your suggestion about adjusting colour channels globally and it looks promising, so I will experiment with more local colour channel adjustments.

The original colour image is better at distinguishing the grey cranes from the panels of black and yellow stripes at their base and the brown dockside, but the colour draws the eye to the those areas and away from the cranes. I hoped the black and white rendition would simplify the image, keep attention mainly on the cranes and possibly be more suited to an industrial scene.

I will post the original colour image along with a new black and white edit in due course, by which time Tinypic will no doubt be working again because this will take me some time!

[pschlute]

Here is a quick attempt I made on your photo. I cleaned the blur spots ( a prize will be awarded for whoever spots the one I missed). Upped the contrast of everything except the ship. Increased the exposure on the ship a little. Cloned out the crane on the right and added a little more sky above.

It is still in my view a picture of cranes (which I quite like). The ship is playing a secondary role.

[DanK]

My reaction was the same as Manfred's. My question is: what is this image about? I think it is more powerful as an image about the cranes, as the ship is small, on an edge, and low in contrast. That would point me in a direction like Peter's, but I would be interested in seeing the color version.

[Geoff F]

I was not happy with the crane on the right, Geoff, but didn't want to crop into the ship. I have been trying to implement your suggestion of cropping to the stern and removing the remainder of the crane. I have tried a mixture of cloning and the spot healing brush but clouds seem a tricky things to clone. I shall have to have (yet) another attempt.

Sometimes, David, it is easier if you do the clone work before cropping. That can give you more source options to produce a smoother looking merge.

[Rufus]

Sometimes, David, it is easier if you do the clone work before cropping. That can give you more source options to produce a smoother looking merge.

Thanks, Geoff. I will bear this in mind when I do a new version as I shall probably start from scratch.

[Rufus]

Here is a quick attempt I made on your photo. I cleaned the blur spots (a prize will be awarded for whoever spots the one I missed). Upped the contrast of everything except the ship. Increased the exposure on the ship a little. Cloned out the crane on the right and added a little more sky above.

It is still in my view a picture of cranes (which I quite like). The ship is playing a secondary role.

Thank you Peter, that really shows what is possible and is what I would have liked to have achieved. I shall definietly keep your version to hand for inspirartion when I tackle this again!

[Rufus]

My reaction was the same as Manfred's. My question is: what is this image about? I think it is more powerful as an image about the cranes, as the ship is small, on an edge, and low in contrast. That would point me in a direction like Peter's, but I would be interested in seeing the color version.

I totally agree as to what the image is about. I just could not find a way to turn it into what I wanted. I really like what Peter has done and I shall endeavour to create something similar.

As mentioned, I thought (or hoped) this could be a suitable image for monochrome treatment, but here is the colour version almost SOOC:

[Rufus]

I purposely left it a several days before returnng to this image in order to come back to it afresh. I have reprocessed it from scratch and I think it is now the best my skill level will allow. I invested a lot of time selecting the ship's hull, bridge and cargo (as I still find making such selections quite difficult and that may become the subject of a new thread in due course.)

The content aware fill worked well on the sky, but not so well on the water but then there is less water for the algorithm to sample. That meant some cloning work and sadly the darker reflection of the cranes has been lost.

Thank you to all who previously commented - all of your valued input is reflected in this reprocessed image:

[joebranko]

I think your re-processing worked very well! Good job!

[pschlute]

as I still find making such selections quite difficult and that may become the subject of a new thread in due course

Where there is an object that is difficult to select with say the lasso or selections tools, i find this method works. Create an adjustment layer (curves; levels etc.). Then invert the mask so it is black instead of white. Select the mask and using a white brush paint on your object (ship) so that only the object will be affected by the settings in the adjustment layer. It often helps to make an extreme adjustment initially so you can clearly see where you have painted on the mask. Increase/decrease the size of your brush using the [ ] keys. Then after set the adjustments to how you want them.

The content aware fill worked well on the sky, but not so well on the water but then there is less water for the algorithm to sample.

Are you using the new feature in PS..... Use lasso to select your area. Edit/Content Aware Fill. Then paint out the green area so the algorithm will only sample from where you choose.

[Rufus]

I think your re-processing worked very well! Good job!

Thank you, Joe.