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Christopher C.M. Cooke
02-06-2008, 02:02 PM
The 12 Apostles (only 7 left) on the Great Ocean Road, Eastern Victoria (one of the great drives/rides of the world) also known as the shipwreck coast (for good reason)

Image captured using a Olympus an C77UZ at 6mm, f/4, 1/400 sec, ISO-64 + CPL, cropped 30%



http://birdphotographers.net/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=3835&stc=1&d=1202323673

Robert Amoruso
02-06-2008, 02:39 PM
Hi Chris,

I was going to say I can only see 6 of them.;)

I like the overall composition but suggest taking some of the blue sky out. I would give it about the distance of the white cloud from the top of the cliffs to where the blue begins. Ilike how the edge of the cliff comes in at the right lower edge forming a diagonal. Little touches like that enhance the composition and you did that well.

You have a bit of a hazy look and some local contrast enhancement can get rid of that. Try:

Light haze removal using Unsharp Mask: Amount 20%, Radius 30, Threshold 4
Stronger haze removal using Unsharp Mask: Amount 20%, Radius 60, Threshold 4

I like the colors in the image and the haze removal will make that POP. You have some noise in the blue sky - some noise removal can help that. In PS, select the sky, go to Filters>Blur>Gaussian Blur. Many tricks to do this on the web. Google remove noise Gaussian blur. Many commercial products available as well. I use NoiseWare.

Christopher C.M. Cooke
02-06-2008, 03:10 PM
Thank you Robert for that.

I have now got much to do this morning and thanks again for the techinal information that helps amatures like myself greatly.

First attempt using your settings for light haze removal and cropping also some NRhttp://img.photobucket.com/albums/v651/cookie99/12Apostlesrz_filtered800x600.jpg

Arthur Morris
02-06-2008, 03:52 PM
Hi Christopher, Better, but the green in the lrc bothered the heck out of me so I brought it into Photoshop for the four minute tune-up. I wound up making many changes, most of them small ones...

Later and love, artie

ps; How many changes can you find?

Christopher C.M. Cooke
02-06-2008, 04:13 PM
Thanks Artie,

1) lrc greenery gone.
2) Sky blue deepened
3) Cliffs and outcrops darkened
4) Sea green deeper
5) Sand near sea edge darker
6) Haze on the horizon looks more defined

OK Artie, how many did I miss?

Arthur Morris
02-06-2008, 04:26 PM
A bunch. Cropped from the bottom and the right. This brought the cliff edge in diagonally from the corner), Took two logs off the beach. And got rid of a bunch of specular highlights in the dark cliff faces. I may have increased the contrast a bit too much but your repost was still too flat for me (though an improvement). Thanks to RAM for his excellent suggestions.

Most important question: How do you like the re-post?

later and love, artie

Christopher C.M. Cooke
02-06-2008, 05:09 PM
Most important question: How do you like the re-post?


Great! I wish I had it as a full size image, it would make a great poster for my wife's hospital ward.

Bret Edge
02-06-2008, 06:32 PM
Composition is strong and the colors are quite nice. The contrast adjustments made a big difference in the overall quality of the image and shows how even minor adjustments can really take images up to the next level. Nice work, Chris!

Arthur Morris
02-07-2008, 06:40 AM
Great! I wish I had it as a full size image, it would make a great poster for my wife's hospital ward.

Glad that you liked it. Robert O'Toole offers an image optimization service and he is way better than I am. If you sent him the file on a CD and my J-PEG, he could make you a killer file. Not sure of the cost but I do not believe that it would be prohibitive. Pretty much everything that I did is included in our Digital Basics File.

later and cheers and love, artie

Gary "Jake" Jacobson
02-07-2008, 12:47 PM
Nice image, it appears that you might have gone a little too strong in noise reduction as it blew away your details on the cliffs. I noticed that it could use a slight cw adjustment. Great capture. Best of luck...hopefully you can eventually get a nice big print from this one!

David Kennedy
02-07-2008, 02:28 PM
Whoa! Like the sportscaster Chris Berman: Let's go "Back, back, back, back, back!" on the changes.

In each successive version we have in this thread the image becomes more and more plastic. (Smooth, detail-less surfaces and hot colors.) Look at those wonderful, crisp lines left by the surf on the beach. They're completely muddied by the second version.

I was happy to see more foreground in the second posting--that was my biggest complaint about the original. I would be tempted to take away even more of that dark blue sky from the top.

With some gentle Curves work to slightly darken the blacks and lighten the midtones, and Local Contrast Enhancement backed-off significantly, to USM 10% at Radius 50, the image can really shine.

Do this to the version with more foreground and I think you'd have a winner.

David Kennedy
02-07-2008, 02:28 PM
FYI, this was my Curves setting for your image:

Christopher C.M. Cooke
02-07-2008, 03:30 PM
Thank you David I am going back to the original image and trying your settings.

Gayle Clement
02-08-2008, 12:08 PM
I do like David's suggestions. It retains the wild and rough feel of the surroundings and still boosts the color and removes the haze.