Thors Well, Oregon Coast

[Terry Johnson]

Hello, this is an image of 'Thors Well' on Oregon Coast. This shot requires you get wet to get the image.

Nikon D810
Nikon 24-70MM @ 42MM
1/8
F22
ISO-64
Tripod
Shutter priority

Your comments please...Terry Johnson

[Morkel Erasmus]

Nice composition and water motion here.
I feel you reduced the contrast too much - it's very "mid-toney" and muddied in the highlights and shadows department.
I'd be interested to see an out-of-camera version to see the differences?

[Adhika Lie]

Ah, I have been to this place and I agree with you completely Terry. You need to be wet to get a decent shot of this place. I am also in complete agreement with Morkel about the processing though. The BG sea looks very weird.

[Terry Johnson]

Morkel and Adhika thank you for your comments. Morkel, I am not understanding your comment about the image being to mid-toney and muddled in the shadows and highlights. The light values in a histogram are where they should be. Adhika, the sea in the photo is correct for what I saw. Help me out here as I would like to improve the image.

Thanks...Terry

[dankearl]

You will learn more by trying to critique others..
This photo has basic processing problems. Maybe if you looked and commented on others, you could
learn what you are doing wrong.

[Terry Johnson]

Dan, Always a pleasure!

[Andrew McLachlan]

Hi Terry...I like the composition and the shutter speed chosen works well for the movement of the water. I believe that when you processed this image you used a VERY heavy handed adjustment of the Shadow / Highlight adjustment in Photoshop...that heavy handed use as given the image the look that Morkel is referring too. My advice would be to go back to the original capture and rework the image with a much lighter use of the Shadow / Highlight...most likely you may only need to adjust the highlight slider slightly to bring out some of the details in the white water...alternately Nik's Color Effect Detail Extractor tool can do a great job on the whites too, but only at light handed use....would love to see a repost after reworking the file.

[Terry Johnson]

Andrew, I will make the changes you have suggested and re-post. Thanks for explaining what Morkel and Adhika were saying...

[Terry Johnson]

Here is the repost of the image we have been discussing. I left more of the sky in for this example.

Let me know what you think...Terry

[Don Lacy]

Hi Terry, This is better but still slightly off would like to see a straight Raw conversion posted without any other adjustments or better yet send me a tiff of a straight Raw conversion.

[Terry Johnson]

Dan, do you have a private e-mail where I can send a full size TIFF...Terry

[Don Lacy]

Dan, do you have a private e-mail where I can send a full size TIFF...Terry

lacydon@comcast.net

[Jonathan Spool]

Terry,
I'm no pro but I'll share my layman perspective with you. I prefer the composition of the first post better as it emphasizes the subject of the picture more. There are three main components to this shot. Well, sea, and sky. I would like to see better differentiation between them rather than they all seem the same. Something needs to be done to the well foreground and the rocky ridge separating it from the sea, in order to bring it "in" and pop the depth of the photo. Otherwise this is a great capture with great potential. Thanks for sharing it and allowing the critique of it to help others.