Photo of a Picture

[RbnDave]

The Critics corner has been kind of slow lately so I figured I should post another photo from my trip to California. I shot this on a beach in Big Sur (right next to where my sea cave photo was taken) with my trusty Canon 50mm lens. I like the way the painter's clothes seem to match her painting and that in turn matches the colors of the beach. She must have planned her outfit that way.

The only thing I don't like about this photo is the shadow that covers everything in the forground. My old paranoia about monitor calibration is creeping up again. When i edited this photo in photo shop, the shadows weren't too dark, but when I posted the edited version on my pbase site, the shadows look completely black. It's the same when I view the picture using IR fan view. When i open it in photoshop to make corrections, it looks fine. How can it be that the colors in photoshop look different than every other applicaton I use on my computer?

http://www.pbase.com/image/23249355.jpg

Let me know what you think about this picture, or my color problems. Thanks for any comments.


Dave

[Jesper]

Good photo, but yes, a little more light would have been nice...

About your colour problem: it shouldn't be the case that photos look different in Photoshop than in other applications. How did you calibrate and profile your monitor (with what software / hardware)? What is your working colour space? For the web, you should use sRGB, because that's the default colour space used by applications that don't support colour management (such as Internet Explorer and the Windows XP Picture Viewer).

[Leighow]

I like the shot. In fact you reminded me that I had to switch my monitor to "ultrabright". Then the shot lite up.

Here is my version!

http://members.rogers.com/hleigh/SEA.jpg

I just thought that it needed to be trimed a bit. Indeed the artist has limited the the scene even more.

-- I switched mode to Adobe 1998 ( then converted) to add a tad of color and light.
-- So too, I altered levels using the monochromatic max option. I like the mid-day look to the image and the foreground rocks show some tonal variation -- which is in the image.
-- Also, I dropped the brightness and upped the contract in the background sea and rocks to tone down the light.
-- Finally I did the same to the sky and then added a bit of cyn and converted it to blue in the sky. Hey .. its a free world!

Anyway I love the sea. I love Big Sur -- but have only driven by.


Beautiful part of the county. Simply beautiful . You also remind me that years ago I used to paint watercolors of the sea , by copying and following instructions in an art book.


HOWIE

PS: Looks like her first comp (at toe level) was the same as yours. This lady is a mover !

[stopbath]

This photo would have been really cool if shot in portrait mode. The painting version is portrait and shows the top of the rock formation and only the closer rock formations. The photo crops the top, and shows more rocks further out.

Very nice anyways though.

[RbnDave]

Thanks everyone for the comments. Sorry it took a couple days for me to respond. These were the first days off I've had in three weeks where it hasn't been raining. I've been out taking photos the last two days.

Jesper-

I used WizWYG to calibrate my monitor. It seems to be calibrated correctly. The problem I am having is the colors in photoshop not matching the colors in different apps. When I view a file using IR Fan View (my file viewer), print them, or post them on the net; the colors match on all those apps. The problem is my pictures look different in photoshop. They look much brighter and less contrasty in Photoshop. When I edit them to look good in photoshop, my pics end up look dark and to contrasted in other apps. I think the solution is for me to do some research and reading on the color subject because I know nothing about it.

Howie-

Thanks for the edit. That's how my version looks when I view it in photoshop! Why can't I get it to stay looking like that when I post on the web? I think I am going to have to read up on color modes because I had no idea what you were talking about when you said you switched the mode to Adobe 1998. I've been avoiding this color issue for a long time. For some reason I can't get excited about setting colors for best viewing on the web. Maybe, I'll research the subject a little instead of reading lens reviews.

Big Sur is great. One of my old college room mates lives in Monterey which is only a half hour drive from Big Sur. His wife is nice enough to let me sleep on their couch every now and then. I try to get out there whenever I have a long stretch of days off.

Stopbath

If I remember correctly, I think I tried framing this photo vertically (portrait mode), but it looked strange because the cliff was too high and dark. Also, I wanted to show the rocks jutting into the water, the waves, and the rocks on the other side of the cove. I needed to use landscape mode for that.


Dave