Seattle: Cranes at sunset

[Hazel Grant]

While here in Seattle, I never got close to any of the feathered variety unfortunately, but noticed that these shipping cranes did have a bird-like look about their structures, so I opted for the pun. 1/80. f5.6 iso 640

[Jerry van Dijk]

Hi Hazel, your image title tricked me as you intended! I like the symmetry of the two cranes and there's some lovely clouds to complement them. I think the image would gain strength if you would remove some of the blue cast, with a little more saturated colors. Also, I think the image is sloping a bit to the left. Leveling it on the large white building on the right hand side did the trick for me.

[Don Railton]

Hi Hazel.. I think the head angle is sightly off..:S3: I agree that cw rotation needed also.. Hope you enjoyed Seattle.

DON

[Hazel Grant]

Thanks. Rotation seems to be my downfall. I'll correct it.
Just finishing a great few days in Seattle.

[Andrew McLachlan]

Hi Hazel, nice pun :) As mentioned the needed rotation and color cast...easy fixes. I would prefer the cranes to be a little more to the left of the composition.

[Hazel Grant]

I guess I must "lean" a bit....last 4 photos I've posted have had rotation comments....Kept thinking I was fixing it, but not yet, I guess. I'll have to work out a system. Re the central positioning, understand your point, but I was at the Seahawks stadium and had to work with getting the light right behind them.

[Jerry van Dijk]

Hi Hazel, I'm much worse than you when it comes to capturing landscapes at a level position. I now force myself to use the guidlines in the viewfinder, which has helped a lot. Usually there is some reference line to be found to which you can adjust the level of the camera using the guidlines. This has helped me a lot.

[Don Railton]

Hi Hazel

The 'system' I use is to look for things that can only be vertical or horizontal as a reference, and then I use the ruler tool to draw a line along that edge and then go to 'image', 'image rotation', 'arbitrary' which will rotate the image to make the drawn line either horizontal or vertical, whichever is the closest. The trick is to find accurate references if you can which is not always possible. (Obviously very image specific). In this image the hanging lift cables on the crane would be the most accurate. They are a bit faint in this image but should be better in the original. Less accurate (but useable) are like things like sides of building and power/ light poles. This image has a number of poles you could use but the one on the extreme right is leaning top to the left more than the others (by about 1 degree). maybe it got bent sometime..... Best to check a few references and average. there are things that can trick you in this leveling business also. The horizon is an excellent reference in seascapes but only if its a true horizon. Sometimes if there distant land visible then there can be a bit of deception happening... Bit tricky to explain that one without drawings and a short essay.. Marina pointed out to me that a line drawn from a point to the same point in a reflection is vertical... I think the most important criteria though is that the final image should look vertical... nothing else matters really, if it looks right then it is.. I see Jerry has made a few suggestion while I have been typing out this, and I agree, the guide is a good check. My 2 cents worth anyway and I hope it helps...

regards

DON

[Hazel Grant]

Thanks for the suggestions. I'll print them out and use them. I worked on using cropping dotted lines as guides here. Apparently the storage containers are not on the same angles as the cranes because I couldn't get the bottom of the upper crane platforms to be quite as level as the tops of the containers, so I opted for the crane platforms. This seems to work with the cables as Don suggested. Also toned down some of the blues as suggested. Cropped some of that bottom stuff out and think it gives more substance and focus. Thanks for all your help.

[Katie Rupp]

Hi Hazel,

Interesting post and discussion. The color in the repost looks better although to me it looks like it still leans slightly to the left so I wonder if using the shoreline would help? TFS

Best,
Katie

[Hazel Grant]

I'll try that. thanks. It is a hard one to get right.

[Jerry van Dijk]

Hi Hazel, I think you lost too much of the magic of the light of the OP with your color correction. Here's a less rigorous attempt, in which I also slightly boosted the vibrance and adjusted the black point using levels (and leveled the image using the large white building on the far shore). For color correction, I only used a WB adjustment. Here's an exact list of adjustments, which I made in ACR:
Temperature: +18
Exposure: -0.10
Contrast: +8
Vibrance: +23
Levels: shifted black point 3 units

[Hazel Grant]

Thanks! I think your post is much better.

[Morkel Erasmus]

Late to this one, Hazel - but Jerry's last repost is my preference.
I enjoyed your pun and interpretation of the scene!