A change of pace

Well what can I say? There are no hidden meanings here. Another one of those where I was more excited making the picture than seeing the result.

But as a question to the viewer, what could I have done to make this a more interesting composition? Anything I can do now? It seems to me that there is no real center of interest. As it is, either the light and/or color carries it, or it doesn't work. What about cropping off the bottom 1/4, just below the group and reflection?

Hi Nathanial,

There you go then. try cropping it, for yourself. The quick way, as mentioned before, use a couple of 'L' shaped pieces of card. There will be maybe half a dozen pleasing crops, then which one do you choose? I think you have to decide where the image is to go. The colour and 'shape' can be enhanced or detracted by its surroundings, the frame, etc.

What are the essential elements of the image? Do you want to emphasise them (the easy way is to crop away the unessential, nothing wrong with taking the easy way), or maybe a similar effect can be obtained by selective blurring, colouring or vignetting. It depends if you want to 'do' something, and what that something is.

Not easy for you, blooming difficult for me ;-)

The answer is out there somewhere. I think it is worth looking for it.

Best wishes,

Ray

Hi Nathalial: It's the color of the sky that carries the picture! The red sky is so evocative. Cropping from the bottom may help but also consider increasing the color contrast between the sky and sea. You could graduate the reddish tint on the sea with PS Quick Mask and gradient filter, maybe with a B&W conversion so the color fades from red to grey from horizon to the bottom. Cheers, Mike.

Nathaniel,

If the lower half inch is not cropped away, we must live with a small triangle of water-edge that is insufficient in extent to satisfy the eye. If, however, by chance, more beach was cropped to make this picture, let's see it back so we can rethink the composition.

However, if this is what there is, then cutting away the lower 0.5" allows the group of figures on the left to assume major importance in a sandwich of amazing sky, foam and blue water!

Amazingly, by the figures being so tiny, (hardly distinguishable from perhaps a group of pelicans on an old wooden dock or even both), with the infinite height of the amazing sky, brings some special intimacy to them. We can imagine they are appreciating this time together in such pristine connection with nature with no barriers between themselves and infinity.

So yes, this work is special.

If it was for me, crop it as suggested and print it on matte paper, large!

Asher

This is interesting, colors are rich,

im wishing I could see a little more of either the top or the bottom, the triangle makes me interested... nontheless its an interesting capture.

Michael_Stones said:

Hi Nathalial: It's the color of the sky that carries the picture! The red sky is so evocative. Cropping from the bottom may help but also consider increasing the color contrast between the sky and sea. You could graduate the reddish tint on the sea with PS Quick Mask and gradient filter, maybe with a B&W conversion so the color fades from red to grey from horizon to the bottom. Cheers, Mike.

Click to expand...

Mike,

I appreciate your comment. Sounds like an interesting approach. Can you elaborate on how one employs B&W conversion, a mask and gradient.? How many layers would this use? Feel free to demonstrate.

-Nat

Hi Nat

Here's a simple PS method.

1. Make a duplicate layer and keep it active for all the manipulations.

2. Click on Edit in Quick Mask Mode on the leftside of the screen menu menu columns - it's just below Set Foreground/Background colors.

3. You want to create a gradient of color reduction from the top to bottom of picture. So click on the Gradient Tool that is six tools down and on the right of the leftside menus. (If you see Paint Brush instead, click the right mouse button and bring Gradient Tool to the front.

4. At the top of this menu bar, you'll see the gradient colors as the second symbol. What you want is a black-to-white gradient (i.e., you can Click to Edit the Gradient if it shows another gradient). Going rightways across the next symbols, there are a number of types of gradient. To go from top to bottom, you want the leftmost one. You also need to check that Mode is Normal and Opacity 100%.

5. Draw a gradient line from bottom of the frame to the top of the sky. The top of the picture will go red, which means it's masked from whatever manipulations you do later.

6. Now click on the Edit in Standard Mode button to the left of the Edit in Quick Mask Mode. The bottom of the image (nearly to the horizon) will be encased in running dashes.

7. Now go to Image -> Adjustments and choose a means of color reduction. The computer I'm using here has an old version of PS so I used Channel Mixer to achieve a monochrome. Newer versions of PS have B&W Conversion, or you could use Hue/Saturation, instead. What you get is a graduated change from monochrome in the lower half of the screen to color at the top.

8. When you like what you see, execute the manipulation, then go to the Selection menu and Deselect.

9. The next step aims to get rid of any minimal loss of color in the top half of the screen associated with the preceding procedure and bring color tint back to selected areas of the lower half (e.g., the breaking white waves).

10. Add a Mask (i.e., second button from the left below the layers menu) and click within this mask on the Layer menu to make it active.

11. Repeat 2-6 in the Quick Mask mode but from to to bottom rather than bottom to top. Also, make sure that the mask, not the image is active in the Layer menu.

12. Now go to Image -> Adjustments and click Invert. This will mask the upper portion of the top layer, allowing the bottom layer to be all that is seen. The picture of the mask on the Layer menu will be a graduated black to white from top to bottom.

13. Next, go to the Selection menu and Deselect.

1.4 Finally, you can use the Brush Tool with a black foreground color to mask the lower portion of the upper layer and allow the tint of the bottom layer to show through where selected.

The image above followed the preceding steps. It was a quickly done and could be much better.
Cheers
Mike

Mike,

That is terrific! I am going to do it.

Thanks,

-Nat