Winter waves.

[Ian McHenry]

In a previous post it was suggested that it would be interesting to see top of the wave spray.
So here is such a recent image.
Cheers: Ian Mc

[Roman Kurywczak]

Hi Ian,
Very powerful waves again. I took this into PS and did a vey agressive highlight reduction......around 80......(did try linear burn on the small Jpeg.......didn't like it). I show the cropped version but i did like the one with everything included. I also ran Noise Ninja on the sky. You are getting some funky colors..........but that may be from your earlier PP efforts. Either way.........this is strong compositionally and shows the power of the waves very well.

[Douglas Bolt]

I like it a lot. But, my initial impression was that the whites were too bright. First, I used Threshold to set to black and white point at RGB 10 and 245. Then, I selected the highlights with Color Range, Ctrl-J to make a separate layer and with a multiply blend at 8% toned down the whites a bit. Then selected and made separate layers of the mid-tones and shadows using the same approach, except used soft light @ 35% for mids and screen @ 44% for shadows. Finally, did a little Shadow/Highlight (~20/20, as I recall, plus increase the mid-tone contrast about 15%) and added a touch more sharpness.

I'm not sure I improved the image, but I sure did have fun working on it.

Thanks, Ian.

[Robert O'Toole]

Hi ian,

Like the cool tones and the offshore spray. I just came back from NSW yesterday and we had wind just like this, S-Sw, almost everyday. Made the conditions great for surfing everyday but the wind dropped the air temps in the hypothermia range.

Whites are bright as mentioned. A quick touch of the recovery slider in ACR would solve the problem.

Robert

[Ian McHenry]

Thank You Roman & Douglas & Robert.
Douglas: Certainly an improvement on my version.
Cleaned up whites really well and overall image has more snap.
Thanks for details of work flow.
Roman: Dynamic edit. Beautiful colour contrast, definition and crop.
Robert: Appreciate advice of shortcut to improvement.
Cheers: Ian Mc

[Robert Amoruso]

Nor much more for me to add Ian. I like Roman's crop and feel it strengthens the image a lot. Love the wind swept spray look.

[Ian McHenry]

Thanks Robert
For anyone interested in getting these spray off the waves shots it's a question of watching for the location of the best spray combined with the light at that location then waiting for just just a fraction before you think wave will make it's best display.
Quite fun really !!!!
Understand 7th wave is the big one.
Cheers: Ian Mc

[Gerald_Gilligan]

I like Romans cropped version and Douglas surgery.
Robert O, You have some awesome wave shots on your site.
Jerry

[Robert O'Toole]

Quite fun really !!!!
Understand 7th wave is the big one.
Cheers: Ian Mc

Hi Ian,

Agree about shooting waves! I love it!

The 7th rule doesnt work out. I've been surfing around the world for 20+ years and i wish it was that easy!
Usually the largest waves are later in the set but in Hawaii you can have 3 wave sets or 20 waves sets, or just one big rogue wave!


Robert

[Ian McHenry]

Fair enough. I was a bit doubtful myself !!
Will have to let " Man vs Wild " Bear Grylls know.LOL.
Mind you that was a 2006 programme in Hawaii.
Cheers: Ian Mc