How would you improve this shot? (c&c)

kenmc

Hi there,
I'm still experimenting with the 350d - and have a shot here that I like but I'd also like your feedback. If you took this shot, could you have improved it in any way? The lighting, the composition, do you think its too glarey?

http://www.ballofdirt.com/media/9772/173644/799176.html

Thanks in advance for your feedback!

Fajitas!

I quite like it. I'd be happy to have taken this shot. I guess, if I took it, I might play around with B&W or getting more colour saturation, but that'd be about it

Cmar-Ireland

Leave it as it is........Great shot!!

Is it Inch?

5uspect

Mayve needs a slight levels adjustment in PS, pull in the shadow slider a bit to take the brightness down a bit and improve contrast.

If you really want to mess with it you could duplicate the layer and change the blend mode to multiply. Then drop the opacity to your taste or maybe add a layer mask and apply a gradient to only have the mulitply effect part of the image.

Attached is my attempt (hope you don't mind) I duplicated the layer and changed the blending mode to multiply as I've said and then painted black on a layer mask with a large soft brush to the sky only.
apart from that its perfect! Nice shot.

kenmc

Hey, thanks for the comments!

5uspect, you made some great changes to the shot, its way sharper and the contrast is way better.

I'm actually travelling at the moment (shot was taken in Byron Bay, Oz - my boyf and his friend after a surfing attempt) so don't have access to any editing software. - I will definately give it a go when I get back. For the moment, I'm trying to concentrate on just taking well composed, technically correct shots. The 350d is fantastic in that Auto mode or the sport/portrait etc settings will give some great results on their own but I'm determined not to rely on those forever ...

Thanks again .... if I post up all my travel snaps, can you make them look amazing!?!?!

rabbitinlights

Straighten the horizon?

~Great Shot.

kenmc

rabbitinlights wrote:

Straighten the horizon?

~Great Shot.

Yeah hmmm, just noticed that and its really annoying me!!!

5uspect

I never noticed the horizon!!!
there's a neat little trick in PS for correcting that...
Select the measure tool, from under the eyedropper tool in the toolbox
Click at one point on the horizon, the hold the mouse button and drag across, releasing the mouse button at the other end of the horizon. In other words, drag a line across the document to indicate what should be level.
Go to Image, rotate canvas > arbitrary.
The rotate canvas dialog appears with the correct number to level your measured line already filled in. Click OK and crop to tidy up.

Morlar

5uspect wrote:

I never noticed the horizon!!!
there's a neat little trick in PS for correcting that...
Select the measure tool, from under the eyedropper tool in the toolbox
Click at one point on the horizon, the hold the mouse button and drag across, releasing the mouse button at the other end of the horizon. In other words, drag a line across the document to indicate what should be level.
Go to Image, rotate canvas > arbitrary.
The rotate canvas dialog appears with the correct number to level your measured line already filled in. Click OK and crop to tidy up.

That is a cool trick.

I tried a different look to your original one - hope you dont mind. I dont think that its any better - just a different take on the shot.

5uspect

i take it it was a quick and rough masking job, those brown halos around the surfers aren't intentional?! I thought about completely blackening out the surfers cos then you don't know if they're coming or going. I like the colours you used, gives is a dusk like effect

StopWatch

Its a lovely shot, and there is plenty you can do with it, just have a play around with it in photoshop, i just had a mess around for 5 minutes, (hope you dont mind),actually i really like the original colour of the photo, anyhew, keep up the good work.

5uspect

This why i love CS2
You can have so much fun playing with your pics
here is a postcard for example, it doesn't really work but the concept it there...

5uspect

ooh thats nice! much more vibrant than my attempt. How did you do that?

rabbitinlights

I really like stopwatch's version.

Its a shot that a lot can be done with.

S.

otron

Ditto - Stopwatches version looks really good.

Any chance of a description of what you did for us photoshop beginners?

nubbintom

Yeah thats a great shot you got!

kenmc

Wow! I didn't realise so much could be done .... the shot looks great, especially Morlar, I really like the tones you used. Then again, stopwatches version is so vibrant ....

I've a few other surf pics that I took that day but I think the original one is the best ... the light was fantastic that evening.

http://www.ballofdirt.com/media/9772/173644/799155.html
http://www.ballofdirt.com/media/9772/173644/799177.html