Sunrise at Low Tide

[Paul Marcellini]

Did a little camping on Boca Chita this weekend. It was great weather and the mosquitoes didn't show up until Sunday. It was a little treacherous walking the rocky flats in near dark but well worth it for this sunrise. You can see a great white heron in the distance. I was debating breaking out the 100-400 but landscapes are still #1 for me. I'm considering a small crop all around, mainly to clean up the left edge, any thoughts?

Thanks for looking,
Paul

20d, 10-22@10, iso200, f11, 3 stop soft gnd. blend of 2 exposures, 1/5 & 1/6s

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3118/2289221221_aace27153d_o.jpg

[Alfred Forns]

Hi Paul I Know the mosquitoes at Boca Chita grow to industrial proportions !!!! You are brave !!!!

So glad you had color for your sunrise images I was out Sunday and it was impressive !!! Totally agree with you regarding the left side Would crop I'm just concern with proportions A mover diagonal image seems to be stronger but would have loosing any canvas All looks so good Interesting to see what Robert has to say

Don't know if you could go slightly brighter and still hold color but wouldn't mind seeing Might add some contrast to the mud Fine image Paul !!!!

[George DeCamp]

Man, love the color you captured and the sharpness and detail is top shelf. I can see an image of what appears to be a blue heron in the distance....very cool!

The crop sounds like it would be worth a try to clean up the left hand side, the rest is looking good to me.

[Alfred Forns]

Paul the image looks so good I had to take a stab at it Eliminated the left edge and enough to get the mangrove closer to the edge Adjusted colors just a bit

[Robert Amoruso]

You beat me to it Alfred. THis would be my crop suggestion. The land on the left was distracting as the center of interest is the mangrove. The punch-up of the colors and contrast suit the image well.

Great eye Paul as you saw the possibility here.

[Paul Marcellini]

Thanks guys, here's what I'm settling for the moment. http://i32.tinypic.com/35lrmmb.jpg

I'm keeping more foreground because what drew me to this was all the diagonals, but then as the tide was rising I liked the snaking line of mirrored shapes between the exposed limestone and water. I may go back and dodge and burn to make that more apparent. I did bump the colors up a bit by adding black in selective color.

Another thing I do, and this image is a good example is use unsharp mask at like 15%, 20 pixels to give some local contrast. Then to eliminate halos, set blend mode to darken. It will only apply to the dark side of the pixels.

Thanks guys,
Paul

[Bret Edge]

Paul: The second version you posted gets my vote. The colors are very natural looking but still nice and vivid. The cropped left side leaves a cleaner composition. Your FG is really what makes this image successful, though. The rocks (or mud, or whatever it is!) lend a feeling of depth to the image. Nice work!

[Grady Weed]

I agree with Bret. The colors on your second version look more natural and the leading diagonal lines make this image for me. Well done and seen before you got there.

[Roman Kurywczak]

Hey Paul,
Second post gets my vote too........and I like the fact that you only cloned out?.....near the mtns. on the left.

Very well done,
Roman

[Paul Marcellini]

Glad the second seems to be working for you guys. Thanks for the comments.

Roman, not sure if you mean my second version or Alfred's. I did not clone anything, just a small crop from left and bottom. Oh, and no mountains besides trash dumps here in South Florida, just tree silhouettes.

Thanks again guys,
Paul