The Beach

[ronnie]

Photo was taken on Formby Beach into the sun , I then altered levels of the sky in photoshop for a more dramatic effect!!

[Stephen]

Re: The Beach

Photo was taken on Formby Beach into the sun , I then altered levels of the sky in photoshop for a more dramatic effect!!

Ronnie for convenience I've posted a larger version of your image.

I think there is a lot of potential with this shot, its the sort of thing I like with the wide sweep of the beach with the small figures adding some scale. I wonder though if you have overdone it a bit with the sky and the area round the dunes, your original does not have that halo of the dunes. Also I wonder if you could lose some of the foreground with a crop, what do you think?

[ronnie]

Re: The Beach

Ronnie for convenience I've posted a larger version of your image.

I think there is a lot of potential with this shot, its the sort of thing I like with the wide sweep of the beach with the small figures adding some scale. I wonder though if you have overdone it a bit with the sky and the area round the dunes, your original does not have that halo of the dunes. Also I wonder if you could lose some of the foreground with a crop, what do you think?

thanks for reply ,agree about the halo will try to alter it tonight and repost

[ronnie]

Re: The Beach

Have done the alteration you suggested & am loking forward to your comments,the reason it as taken so long my daughter got married on saturday and time as been at a primium

[ronnie]

Re: The Beach

Sorry !! the photo is in my gallary

[Ian]

Re: The Beach

Sorry !! the photo is in my gallary

I think the amount of foreground in this case is a matter of personal preference - I personally like it and feel it strengthens the composition. I do notice curvature of the horizon caused by wide angle lens distortion. I'm not quite sure if this is an interesting effect or not

I feel that the horizon slopes to the righth, but without examining it more closely, it could well be an illusion. I agree about the halo effect Stephen pointed out.

But overall, a nice shot.

Ian

[ronnie]

Re: The Beach

thanks for that I think it is better without the halo effect when cropping the forground it started looking like a panoramic shot,The comments have encouraged me to post more.

[Tom]

Re: The Beach

I like this so much. All the harsh light on the sand and water gives it an almost unreal feel which makes it very interesting and different. The big foreground is an asset as far as I'm concerned. The latest effort in your gallery is the best one.

[ronnie]

Re: The Beach

thanks , It's great to hear constructive comments and encouraging for beginners to digital photography like myself.

[Tinka]

Re: The Beach

Hi Ronnie,
A nice image with potential, I prefer the image with all the space, as has been noted the halo effect is offputting and spoils a great image. I have found that to avoid the halo effect you can select right up to the edge of an area,(the sand dune tops in this case) and then expand the selection by one pixel and then soften the selection by one pixel and feather the selection to soften and blend the selection edge (experiment with feather amount) only then I would adjust the sky area. I find this works for me. Another method is to make a rough selection to include a little of the top of the sand dunes and the sky area, don't use straight line selections along the sand dune tops, then feather the selection by 150 to 200 pixels then adjust the sky area, this method produces a very smooth gradient between the sky manipulations and forground. also try working on seperate layers for each stage, the flatten the end result when happy. There are other methods but these have worked for me.
Good luck