wind waves

[Dennis Bishop]

Last year there were several storms which generated wind waves that resulted in damage along the southern shore of Lake Erie. The waves experienced on September 19, when this photo was taken, were far from the worst. In fact, this isn't the largest one I saw hit the dock that day.

Nikon D3s, ISO 6400, f/11, 1/8000 second, zoom lens at 35 mm

processing highlights

• cropped left, right, and top
• The gulls, which had been there about three weeks before were added. They played a larger role in an earlier image but were flying in the opposite direction and at a different angle.
• Topaz Simplify -- saved watercolor preset, partially masked from the crashed wave and spray
• Alien Skin Snap Art -- saved watercolor wash preset, Hard Light blend mode
• This is where I'd normally indicate I'd used three Fractalius layers. Not this time and maybe never again. Instead, it was three saved black-on-white presets from Topaz Glow in Multiply, Divide, and Multiply blend modes, respectively. I haven't yet been able to duplicate with Glow what I get with the early version of Fractalius I have to use for my saved presets, but it was close enough. (I processed images done with Fractalius and with Glow for comparison.) With Glow, I don't have to make a duplicate image, convert it to 8-bit mode (necessary with the early version of Fractalius), and move the processed layers back to the 16-bit version. In addition, the layers are generated much faster in Glow.
• Simplify and Snap Art -- saved black-on-white edges presets, two layers of each, Multiply and Divide with inverse masks
• Photo Filter adjustment layer -- Warming 85
• Nik Color Efex -- Tonal Contrast masked
• Alien Skin Exposure -- white vignette
• Photo Filter adjustment layer -- Warming 81
• Nik Color Efex -- Darken/Lighten Center (actually a lightening of the center and no change to the "border luminosity"

[Cheryl Slechta]

Dennis - great capture. I like the gulls and the reflections on the seawall. The wave looks formidable and your "Dennis" processing looks great also

[Wendy Kates]

Wow, that wave looks powerful! I like the way the gray skies and green waters really evoke a stormy scene. And the water reflecting on the seawall is also interesting. I wonder what it would look like with a cooling filter rather than a warming filter?

[Nancy Bell]

Wonderful foreground with the wet pavement and water reflection! And a great composition with the wave captured at the moment of a dramatic arch! Wendy has an interesting point about warming vs cooling filter. I am also using Fractalius less and less; it is so slow that I don't want to wait to see various versions generated. However I need to work more with Glow since the presets appear very heavy handed to me.

[Dennis Bishop]

Wendy and Nancy, you're right about the warming/cooling. I made a change and was going to post it, but something strange has happened to the File>Export>Save for Web (Legacy) interface. I either have to chase away a gremlin or figure out how to go a different direction without using a lot of extra steps.

[Dennis Bishop]

The gremlin's been shooed away, so here's how the image looks with less warming. I'd used two warming filters with some steps between. To make it less warm, I deleted the second one. There was a Color Efex layer above it, but it'd been heavily masked, so removing the warming filter below it affected much of the image and made a real difference. Thanks, again.

[Judy Howle]

Wow, that is spectacular Dennis! I love everything about it; the amazing wave itself, the sky, the birds, and the wet pavement, along with your processing. It's beautiful, a real wall hanger!

[Wendy Kates]

Yes, I really like the difference it made: especially the difference in the wet pavement and the sky.