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View Full Version : Coral Cove Park II



Harold Davis
02-13-2009, 05:03 PM
gave it another try sunday morning after a terrible saturday morning outing to miami. i was down on the beach and there wasnt much to work with as far as the sun went, so i left. turned around and saw this and couldnt believe how quick everything changed.

i'm stuck on the processing here. i thought i liked it like this, but am considering going a little lighter after looking at it for a while. and this is the full frame. i had no clue where to even begin as far as a crop. any suggestions?

D300, 18-200 at 18mm, f/22, five images at -2 to +2, ISO 400. tone mapped in Photomatix Pro.

thanks for looking and your comments are appreciated.

Paul Wolf
02-13-2009, 08:15 PM
Here's one version. Using PhotoShop CS4, I:

1. Used lens correction to straighten the edge of the boardwalk while keeping the horizon horizontal.
2. Cropped it both from the right and from the top.
3. Selected the sky above the horizon and then flipped it horizontally.
4. Boosted saturation a bit.

Maybe this was a bit more extreme than you had in mind, but to my eye, I needed to see the boardwalk pointing toward the sun. It could probably use a little more care in cleaning up the horizon line and maybe adding a bit of color from the sun into the water. Anyway, just one idea.

Roman Kurywczak
02-14-2009, 09:55 AM
Hi Harold,
I like Paul's crop........worked for me so I used it in my re-post. I wasn't so sure about the flip on the sun....as compositionally.......my eye wanders down the boardwalk to the sun....but the right becomes uninteresting.......so I kept your original also........as my eye was naturally then drawn through the image. I lightened the sky and FG seperately through levels and S/H and LCE(different amounts on both). When I did the FG.....I darkened the vegetation in the LRC with the burn tool because for me...the lightening made it stand out to much. Finally a little color adjustment on the blues. I think the lightening brought out the subtle differences in the HDR work.........so nicely done on the comp and HDR....just a bit more pp'ing to make it pop.

Harold Davis
02-14-2009, 10:45 AM
thanks to both of you for the reworks. roman, i was where you put it when i was in photomatix and decided to go the other way. funny how it turned out later that i didnt like it as much. will go back and bring it back up to par.

thanks again!!

Paul Wolf
02-14-2009, 10:48 AM
Actually, I kept looking at it after I posted it and agree with Roman. Flipping the sun made the image really heavy on the left, i.e. it kept my eyes there and did nothing to draw me into the scene. I also like what Roman did to the vegetation. It seems to balance out the sunrise.

Robert Amoruso
02-14-2009, 11:46 AM
Harold,

You did not put your shutter speed down. I would be interested in what you used as the water looks just right. I liek the comp and think you balanced the boardwalk with the sun just right.

Harold Davis
02-15-2009, 11:58 AM
sorry robert, they were 1/30 to 1/2. five images at a stop apart.