All i can say is STUNNING!
Hi Bill,
Looks good
Personally, there are a couple of things I'd try if it were one of my images ...
1. Drop the saturation back a bit more (say, 10 - 12%)
2. Crop a little more of the bottom
3. Stretch it horizontally a bit more (try a 2.5:1 or 3:1 aspect ration); it'll make it look more panoramic (this type of image will tolerate it very well).
Oops, that's 3 - me bad!
Thanks for the CC Colin, Will give all those tips a try , Will post the rework shortly , Cheers mate
Bill, thats one beautiful image! Truly stunning! I can see a competition winner
remarkably well . If you go back to the forum homepage which shows all the main thread topics, there's one called Monthly & other competitions. There's bound to be one running that will suit your shot. No prizes, but its fun to see how your work compares (plus, its an interesting way to guage what other CiC members see as a good picture)
Bill
You have to enter it into a competition thread. It's okay to have it posted here AND in a comp thread.
You have a choice. You can put it into the December Monthly Challenge of the Mini Competition that's running at the time (I think we're on #153 at the moment). I think many of perceive the Monthly Challenge as the 'senior ' competition where those that we're really proud of, might go.
What a stunning scene!
Love the second version. Works very well as a panorama and there's just enough of the reflected gold in the waves at the front to balance the sky. Good move to decrease saturation too.
And so enters old misery guts.
My mum and dad had a painting like this on the wall behind their leatherette and plastic wood sofa in the 70's it was the height of fashion and the only image that stood any chance of competing with the bright purple walls. The problem for me is that there is no subtlety or atmosphere to it and it is verging on something that has been processed with a 'acrlicyfy' filter. I see so many of this type of image from the southern hemisphere I am beginning to think things actually look like this down under.
On the positive side the composition is very well balanced (in the second shot). I don't mean to be a contrary old duffer but I find the image very flat like an acrylic fantasy painting. Not my thing. sorry
Bill- this is a stunner- really nice.
I think either version is nice, the "pano" has a certain power to it but it misses some of the interest in the soft, dark foreground of the first version.
Which of the exposures appears most like reality or worth both fairly processed?
I have always been trying to get a sunrise shot over the Pacific Ocean from the California Coast but, no matter how early I get up, the sun always comes up from my back. Do I need a new camera? (LOL)
Lovely shot, I could see it as a large poster!
Ha ha on both of you -- I live on the Pacific coast, and I can show you pictures of sunrise over the ocean -- here's one:
I can provide the EXIF data if you doubt . . . extra credit to anyone who can figure out the explanation!
Bill, I think both images are stunning, but I think in the end I like the pano one better. I see what Steve is saying, but I'm sure this is what sunsets "really" look like Down Under, so that doesn't bother me. I give both a big "thumbs up."
Easy one, Elise...you live on the northwest side of a 1/2 moon type bay and are shooting in the opposite direction...hence, sunrise - or something like that...
Oh, Chris, you're just too smart. We live on the northern side of the bay, and our little town is on a kind of point so the beach actually faces east -- as someone who's lived on the West Coast for nearly 40 years and always oriented myself with the ocean to the west, it's extremely disorienting, living in the Santa Cruz area. I noticed right away that people don't use compass directions -- they say "toward town" or "away from the ocean," because saying "east" or "south" is very confusing when it feels like "north" or "west".
Sorry to hijack your thread, Bill!
While I can appreciate an image like this, I too am of that old school thinking that it's a little over the top for me...but, I might just give it a shot some day. It would be interesting to know the exposure time/aperture and filtration used on this shot and if it is a straight shot, or HDR. Just to be nosy.
I think it a very good composition, and a very attractive scene. But I think landscapes, unless they are abstract (this isn't) should have some semblance of realism. This to me seems over-engineered. Too much artifice in Photoshop - something that is normally used to boost a weak image, but this is definitely not a weak image at all.
I reduced the vibrancy slider in a CS5 vibrancy layer by -10%. It's not much of a reduction, and the vibrancy slider just takes the edge of the extreme levels, unlike the saturation slider, which takes a hammer to it. It's a little more realistic, but then I wasn't there. I'm here in the sub-zero temperatures.
Original
Edit