Coral Cove Morning

[Don Lacy]

One more from the other day cropped to pano since the top of the sky was not interesting I am hoping the lines and rising sun behind the clouds draws the viewers eye thru the frame.

1D Mark III, 17-40 f/4, 1/5s at f/16, Manual Mode, Spot Metered, 2 stop hard edge grad, Tripod, ISO 100,

[Dave Mills]

Hi Don, I like the comp with a good foreground,middle,backround and an effective pano crop. The light is good but the sky and backround is a bit washed. I gave it a contrast adj just to show that you can kick the sky up a bit and get a different look..I didn't want to overdo it. Robert has a good technique and he will probably pass it on to you

[Andrew McLachlan]

Hi Don. Like the pano crop, the distant clouds and still loving the foreground rocks. Dave's repost makes the cloud-bank pop a little more. The only thing I might have done if it were mine is add a ND filter for a longer exposure to smooth out the incoming waves. Nicely done!

[Robert Amoruso]

Don,

I like this and would agree with a slower shutter speed to give the water that silky look.

I believe what Dave is speaking of is the following (in PS):

1) Create BG copy.
2) Switch to Channels Palette.
3) Double click on RGB channel - this creates a selection of highlights.
4) Switch back to Layers Palette.
5) Click on the "create mask" icon on the bottom of the layers palette - this creates a gray-scale mask of the image.
6) Change blending mode to Multiply - this multiples the pixel's color by itself thereby darkening the pixels. Bright pixels get darkened more sine the mask is not protecting them as much as the shadows.
7) You can change opacity of the layer to suit you taste.

In the repost I left opacity at 100%, flattened the image, created a Shadows/Highlights correction on a new BG copy and opened up shadows a lot.

[Judy Howle]

Nice composition with the foreground rocks leading to the water and the sun. I like Robert's repost which brings out a lot more detail and contrast.

[Morkel Erasmus]

Lovely textures upfront and it does lead the eye nicely to the horizon and the sun.
I find the foreground just a tad too 'crisp' for my tastes, as if you ran one round too much sharpening? :eek3:
Robert's repost is nice!

[Roman Kurywczak]

Hey Don,
I think the comp works very well!!! I like the directions the reposts go......so worth exploring and easy tweaks to a very nice comp IMO! I think you kept in just the right amount of sky too!
Off to Tanzani for me!