Clouds

[FootLoose]

An hour earlier the sky was clear. I had spent the time on a rocky pinnacle off to the right of frame shooting waves in the opposite direction. Suddenly the light started failing and I turned around to see this tail end of a recent East Coast Low (cyclone) swirling in. It was time to move but as I strode back along the beach I noticed the gap in the clouds lining up with the surfer so stopped to grab a shot.

Comments are welcome but please DO NOT alter, revise or edit this image in any way.


Carpe-Diem_84A3670-1 by Greg, on Flickr

[Manfred M]

Stunning image; the surfer definitely adds perspective to what is happening. The texture in the clouds are nicely contrasted by the relatively calm seas. Well seen and captured!

[Chataignier]

Excellent ! The wild sky seems to be closing in on the surfer in silhouette.

[DanK]

Wow. A stunning capture.

IMHO, this is a really difficult image to handle because of the preponderance of darks. In keeping with your request, I won't post alterations. However, if it were mine, I think I would do some tonality adjustments to further bring out some of the interesting details and contrasts. In particular, I didn't even notice the surfer the first time I looked at the image. S/he's very small, so the only way to draw the viewer's eye is with contrast.

To start, I tried only two simple edits, both with a levels tool. First, globally, I pulled down the white point a bit, fiddling somewhere between 235 and 240. That markedly increases the contrast in the image as a whole without altering the powerful darks. Second, I pulled the midtones up by changing the midpoint in the levels tool to about 1.25. I applied a black mask and painted this adjustment on only on the line of surf and around the surfer, with more of the adjustment painted on near the surfer. This highlights the surfer via the contrast, and it also brings out the two leading lines that point to him or her--the surf to the left, and the v-shape bright break in the clouds.

Just a thought.

[Wavelength]

What an outstanding image!!! Just blown my mind away....Of course, i was thinking how its colored one would be; more striking or not.... The image is a strong theme for an oil painting!!!

[xpatUSA]

Wow. A stunning capture.

IMHO, this is a really difficult image to handle because of the preponderance of darks. In keeping with your request, I won't post alterations. However, if it were mine, I think I would do some tonality adjustments to further bring out some of the interesting details and contrasts. In particular, I didn't even notice the surfer the first time I looked at the image.

Just a thought.

I agree. I'd select from the shore-line down and up the tonality by some means.

A Splendid Moment, well capatured!

[Geoff F]

My first thoughts were similar to Dan. Excellent sky but I would slightly increase the sea highlights. My method would be slightly different to Dan but I think the final result would be similar.

[Stagecoach]

Superb Greg.

[lovelife65]

Fantastic image!!! Really well seen and captured. My only small critique is that the blown out clouds top middle are really bright and a bit distracting but not sure how I would have done anything differently (or nearly as great).

[pschlute]

Bold image...... very nice.

[rpcrowe]

Very dramatic image...

[Dave Humphries]

Well done Greg, a good example why we should never pack the camera away the moment we think we've stopped shooting.

Also with regard to 'look behind', if I'm out on a photo-walk, even when simply transiting one location to another, I turn around every 30 seconds of walking to see what the view behind offers. It is good (pre-visualisation) training to try and imagine the light angles, shapes, shadows, etc., before turning - and see how close you were. Wouldn't apply in this case so much, but I hope folks get the idea.

Cheers, Dave

[bje07]

Very powerful image
Well done Greg

[FootLoose]

Thank you all for an interesting range of responses.
I posted this online a few months ago and at the time was quite happy with it. Now I think I should have let it “bake” for a while longer because at times it does seem a bit flat to me, too.

I agree that some areas of the image could possibly use a slight contrast boost, mainly in the clouds where I might dodge and burn midtones selectively with curves layers. I don’t particularly wish to draw any more attention to the surfer because although he is integral to the image the sky is the subject not him. His primary purpose is to give scale to the scene. However I agree that he could probably be a little brighter. And now I think I might have cooled the whitewater on the wave he is riding a bit too much. At the time I didn’t want it to distract from the bright clouds.

[*Incidentally Dan, if you are using PS, simply dragging the levels white slider to the left will brighten the overall image but it won’t increase the contrast. If you watch the midtones slider while you move the white slider you will see it move to the left too, lightening the midtones as well. To increase the contrast you need to move the midtone slider to the right at the same time to hold them back.]


Dave, “looking behind” is sound advice indeed and my usual practice (as well as look up and look down) -- especially when on the streets where it is also a survival strategy.

[mugge]

I am thinking about what I don't like about this image.

[MrB]

Sharon, I agree regarding the distraction to which you have referred. When the image is moved up the screen just to remove the bright semicircle from the top, it becomes an even stronger image in my view.

Philip

[DanK]

[*Incidentally Dan, if you are using PS, simply dragging the levels white slider to the left will brighten the overall image but it won’t increase the contrast. If you watch the midtones slider while you move the white slider you will see it move to the left too, lightening the midtones as well. To increase the contrast you need to move the midtone slider to the right at the same time to hold them back.]

I think what you are referring to is midtone contrast. It's important to distinguish between global contrast and midtone contrast.

Global contrast is an increase in the total tonal range of the image. Midtone contrast increases tonal range in the midtones, at the cost of compressing tonal range in the tails.

My first edit was to increase global contrast. Moving the white point down increases global contrast, but not midtone contrast. You can see this by setting one of the two displays in the info panel to Lab mode and moving the cursor over the image. The number before the / is the initial luminosity value, while the number after is the luminosity value after the adjustment layer is applied. I picked three areas in your image to illustrate this: the top center for highlights, nearly dead center for midtones, and the left of the bottom left land mass for shadows. The first increased 4, the second increased 2, and the third didn't increase.

Your comment is about the second edit, the one done with the midtones adjustment on a levels layer. I agree, applying that globally isn't a way to increase midtone contrast. (It actually increases it in some tonal ranges and decreases it in others.) However, I applied it locally. That creates a local increase in midtone contrast, increasing slightly the tonal difference between the white surf (which is brightened) and the dark water above and below (which isn't). Here too, you can see this by checking the before and after luminosity values, although it would be clearer if you used a stronger edit than mine. You could create a similar effect by creating a midtone contrast adjustment with a curve and applying that locally with a brush. In fact, I just redid the edit using this curve rather than the second levels layer:

[viathelens]

A beautiful shot, but like a couple of other people my eye went first to the top of the clouds and I did not see the surfer until someone mentioned it. There are various ways to edit images so I won't get into that, but using your skills and software to highlight the surfer more will help draw the viewer's eye there as well.