Try 1x for free
1x is a curated photo gallery where every image have been handpicked for their high quality. With a membership, you can take part in the curation process and also try uploading your own best photos and see if they are good enough to make it all the way.
Right now you get one month for free when signing up for a PRO account. You can cancel anytime without being charged.
Try for free   No thanks
We use cookies
This website uses cookies and other tracking technologies to improve your browsing experience for the following purposes: to enable basic functionality of the website, to provide a better experience on the website, to measure your interest in our products and services and to personalize marketing interactions.
I agree   I deny
Forum
Critique
Beach friends
#BEACH
Sharon Kim
2 years ago

Hello

 

I would appreciate your feedback and suggestions on this image

 

24mm

125 ISO

1/3 sec

f/13

 

Steven T CREW 
2 years ago — Senior critic

Sharon,

 

Thank you for sharing 'Beach Friends' with us here in Critique.  It's refreshing to see scenes like this as the thermometer dips to ridiculously low numbers and the snow gets deeper here every day. 

 

There are a couple of technical details that ordinary viewers wouldn't notice, but that photographers will.  The sunset is quite bright and the clouds have lost all texture and detail.  If you have a raw file you could try the'Highlight' slider in the raw conversion step.  The breaking wave seems over-saturated.  Maybe the sea was that colour, but it looks a bit too strong. 

 

The triangular composition is OK, but the surfer gets a lot of attention, and the 1/3 second shutter has blurred them.  It's hard to see if the four friends are watching the surfer or are focused on the setting sun.  Anyway, since we offer suggestions here I think losing the surfer would simplify the composition so there's just the four friends, the sea, the sunset, and the sky.  Nice clouds, by the way!  I love the rock the subjects are seated on too - there's some interesting forms and shapes for photographs.

 

From a screen shot, I darkened the sky and the foreground, removed the surfer with Photoshop's 'Fill>Content Aware' tool, cropped the left, de-saturated the blue breaking wave, and flipped the image left-to-right.  I'm not a 'rule of thirds' preacher, but sometimes it does tend to give a sense of formality and restfulness to an image.  I compressed the sky so it would be close to the thirds position like your original.  This is done in Photoshop by making a rectangular selection of the sky and then using 'Edit>Transform>Scale to pull the top down.  You have to hold the 'Shift' key down as you pull so that only the height of the selection is changed.

 

Those are suggestions only.  You're the one who created the image.   You may not want to lose the surfer, and seeing the image reversed is often not acceptable to the photographer because it's not the way they remember it. 

 

Thanks again for paticipting in Critique.  All members are welcome to join in.  If you see a photo you want to comment on, please do. 

 

. . . . Steven, senior critic

 

 

Sharon Kim
2 years ago
Steven T CREW 

Sharon,

 

Thank you for sharing 'Beach Friends' with us here in Critique.  It's refreshing to see scenes like this as the thermometer dips to ridiculously low numbers and the snow gets deeper here every day. 

 

There are a couple of technical details that ordinary viewers wouldn't notice, but that photographers will.  The sunset is quite bright and the clouds have lost all texture and detail.  If you have a raw file you could try the'Highlight' slider in the raw conversion step.  The breaking wave seems over-saturated.  Maybe the sea was that colour, but it looks a bit too strong. 

 

The triangular composition is OK, but the surfer gets a lot of attention, and the 1/3 second shutter has blurred them.  It's hard to see if the four friends are watching the surfer or are focused on the setting sun.  Anyway, since we offer suggestions here I think losing the surfer would simplify the composition so there's just the four friends, the sea, the sunset, and the sky.  Nice clouds, by the way!  I love the rock the subjects are seated on too - there's some interesting forms and shapes for photographs.

 

From a screen shot, I darkened the sky and the foreground, removed the surfer with Photoshop's 'Fill>Content Aware' tool, cropped the left, de-saturated the blue breaking wave, and flipped the image left-to-right.  I'm not a 'rule of thirds' preacher, but sometimes it does tend to give a sense of formality and restfulness to an image.  I compressed the sky so it would be close to the thirds position like your original.  This is done in Photoshop by making a rectangular selection of the sky and then using 'Edit>Transform>Scale to pull the top down.  You have to hold the 'Shift' key down as you pull so that only the height of the selection is changed.

 

Those are suggestions only.  You're the one who created the image.   You may not want to lose the surfer, and seeing the image reversed is often not acceptable to the photographer because it's not the way they remember it. 

 

Thanks again for paticipting in Critique.  All members are welcome to join in.  If you see a photo you want to comment on, please do. 

 

. . . . Steven, senior critic

 

 

Thank you Steven for your detailed and helpful feedback. I appreciate your suggestions and will apply them to my image before sending it to curation.