JetSki

[rick barclay]

Please give me your opinions on this shot, taken today on the Point Pleasant side of the Manasquan Inlet. Thanks.

http://flashdaddee.com/CRW_1801.jpg

[msol]

I love how you froze the speed and the water drops.

I would crop of the fence on the top. Somehow a jet ski and a concrete wall don't belong together, but if you crop of the top, then I think the concrete will be less prominent. Also it will make the format more panorma like, which I think is great for fast horizontally moving subjects.

Also I'd lighten it a bit. Now the guy and the water are a bit dark because of the bright white of the jet ski. Lightening probably blows out some of the whites, but I think it would be better.

Just some thoughts. Good luck!

[rick barclay]

Thanks msol. I pondered cropping out the bulkhead, but I left it in because I thought it added some interesting detail to the pic, and I didn't want to over-crop. Freezing the water was easy, but it does make the image look nicer imo. I shot about a hundred pics here today, finally remembering to
set my iso and other things properly.

[Radtech1]

Instead of cropping, what if you applied motion blur to de-emphasise the wall as well as the water.

Maybe cut it into 3 or 4 layers and apply the blur more strongly to the layers that represent the areas further away.

Rad

[rick barclay]

I think this one would have worked, but unforunately I missed the focus. Maybe I'll do better when I get my new camera. Hope so.

I'll fool around with motion blur and see what it looks like.

http://flashdaddee.com/CRW_1803.jpg

[Mitchkitter]

i dont like the motion blur :\

[Radtech1]

I hope that it is not too forward, but I added a little motion blur. 30 pixels on the wall, and 20 pixels on the water above the level of the riders arm. I don't know about you, but I think that this really helps to isolate the rider. Even though the wall is in an unfortunate position, it seems a lot less prominent to me.

What think you?

Rad

http://home.ripway.com/2004-2/78486/Canon/MB.jpg

[Aylwin]

Dang it, Rad! That's brilliant! How did you do that? Tutorial please! :)

[rick barclay]

I second that emotion, too, even though I really don't like the effect
in this particular shot. I tried the motion blur myself, but I could only
get it on the whole frame. I'm sure there's a simple answer, but I don't
know Photoshop that well enough to tinker around with masks and
levels.

[Radtech1]

Dang it, Rad! That's brilliant! How did you do that? Tutorial please! :)

Very Easy - Very Quick

I did it in Elements, and in fact, it will take longer to write this than it did to do it.

1) Layer | Duplicate Layer

2) Magnetic Lasoo around the rider, the craft and most of the waterspray

3) CTL+C | CTL+V (Copy and Paste - so now you have just the rider in its own layer)

4) On your Layers Pallete go back and highlight your "Background Copy" layer and turn off the little eyeballs on all the other layers.

5) Select | Reselect

6) CTL+X (Now you have cut a white hole where the rider was.)

7) Use the CLONE tool to replace the white with whatever is around it, water, wall etc. Don't worry too much about making look pretty, remember, it is going to be blurry.

8 ) Then I used the Rectangle Selection to select the wall, and some water, then CTL+C | CTL+V.

9) Then I used the Rectangle Selection again to select the water down to the level of his arms, then CTL+C | CTL+V.

10) Go to the Layers Pallete and select the Wall layer, then Filter | Blur | Motion Blur | Set distance at 30 | OK

11) Now go to the Layers Pallete and select the Water layer, then Filter | Blur | Motion Blur | Set distance at 20 | OK

12) Now go to the Layers Pallete and drag the layers up and down till they are in this order (Top to Bottom) "Wall" layer, "Water" layer, "Rider" layer, Background Copy, then Background.

13) When they are in the correct order, exit the pallete, and go to Layer | Flatten Image then click OK if asked.

It looks hard, but it is REALLY easy and takes less time to do than to read even.

Rad

[Radtech1]

I FORGOT A STEP!!!!


8 ) Then I used the Rectangle Selection to select the wall, and some water, then CTL+C | CTL+V.

9) Then I used the Rectangle Selection again to select the water down to the level of his arms, then CTL+C | CTL+V.

9b) NOW delete "Background Copy" Layer by highlighting it in the Layers Pallete, right clicking and choosing "Delete Layer"


10) Go to the Layers Pallete and select the Wall layer, then Filter | Blur | Motion Blur | Set distance at 30 | OK

11) Now go to the Layers Pallete and select the Water layer, then Filter | Blur | Motion Blur | Set distance at 20 | OK

12) Now go to the Layers Pallete and drag the layers up and down till they are in this order (Top to Bottom) "Wall" layer, "Water" layer, "Rider" layer, then Background.

13) When they are in the correct order, exit the pallete, and go to Layer | Flatten Image then click OK if asked.

It looks hard, but it is REALLY easy and takes less time to do than to read even.

Rad

Hope this works better!

Rad

[rick barclay]

Thanks, bud.