crystal cove beach, orange county, california

[david888lee]

man, just got my new hi-tech filters, and boy are these nice! really brings out the clouds.

i used to always use hdr to bring out colors and help with the exposure of a picture, but this time i didn't need it. :] what do you think? the good and the bad..

http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1249/1450675887_fb1109eb54_o.jpg

http://www.flickr.com/photo_zoom.gne?id=1450675887&context=set-72157600205655919&size=o

edit: or... do you like this version? :]

http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1319/1460240055_03881d37ff_o.jpg
http://www.flickr.com/photo_zoom.gne?id=1460240055&context=photostream&size=o

[silvex]

Very dramatic shot. Here are my suggestions.

[Kristy]

OH my gosh.... We did some family shots for my sister and her kids there years ago. I wanted to go back and I forgot the name of the beach... That it! Crystal Cove... !

So beautiful... Your shots are really nice, the sky is beautiful.. I'm not too crazy abouat the moss on the rocks... I'd probably darken it if it were my photo.. but they are really pretty.. Great job! :)

[rob1den]

nice well done

[jdizzle]

Very nice! I like silvexs 2nd crop better.

[gubak1]

Beautiful photo!

[dazzlebea]

Oh that's not fair! I was all set to go out there last night when something came up at the last moment and now you show what a gorgeous sunset we had. Great photo :) I like the green rocks in the FG.

[sparker1]

The foreground could be darker, or cropped as suggested (which gets the horizon off center). I am not bothered by the centered horizon, so I'd just darken the foreground a bit. Beautiful photo.

[silvex]

Something like this?

[Jackie Merritt]

I liked the second crop, throwing the horizon off centre (center!). Makes the sky the focus - so dramatic - love it!

[Kristy]

Something like this?


YES!!! :) Love the darkness in the rocks... brings more attention to the sky.. so much more dramatic... :) LOVE IT!! Just bring back some of the sky and crop out more rock.. I think.... ;)

[theague]

Something like this?

NO!

The original was way better in my opinion. Only problem would be the lens flare but that's difficult to do anything about, at least to my knowledge. I like your original as is. Well done!

Not jabbing at anyone, but if you like the way the original looks and are happy with it, why conform to someone else's vision of your image?

[david888lee]

thanks for all the wonderful comments guys. sadly enough, the picture i posted, i edited the shadows and highlights to bring out the foreground more, however it seems that a darker foreground would look nicer? so, here's the original from raw. the crop feels weird to me, because i really like the colors of the green algae on the rocks.

what do you think of the original version, versus the pp one?

http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1080/1454238485_9c5a713e56_o.jpg
http://www.flickr.com/photo_zoom.gne?id=1454225807&context=photostream&size=o

[Kristy]

I dont think anyone was trying to offend... We all have different visions.. this image is amazing any which way.. and the original RAW file is the best in my opinion.. :) AWESOME!!

Did I happen to say breath-taking?? Look how the light is hitting the green alge in the original.. that is truly perfect.. . We always mess with things and sometime, often.. the original
speaks volumes for itself... and for the photographer who originally saw it that way and decided to capture it.. :)

[david888lee]

NO!

The original was way better in my opinion. Only problem would be the lens flare but that's difficult to do anything about, at least to my knowledge. I like your original as is. Well done!

Not jabbing at anyone, but if you like the way the original looks and are happy with it, why conform to someone else's vision of your image?

haha, theague thanks for your opinions. i think you thought that silvex was the op? or thats what it sounds like from your post. i do believe that you should make the image as you like it, however since i am still learning, i am trying to see what is good or bad, since i obviously have a lot of improvement and im not perfect. :)

[kenyc]

I like the original best, but am having a hard time believing that is NOT an hdr.

KAC

[Randy1213]

I think the original is beautiful and vote for that one. At least for a Photoshop novice like me, time spent in the digital darkroom is time that could've been spent taking more pics and learning more behind the camera. A photo as beautiful as this one deserves to be viewed for what it offers rather than for what it could offer after an hour of PP.

Just my humble opinion intended with no offense at all to those masters of PP out there. By the way, what filter or filters did you use?

[jdizzle]

I like the original best, but am having a hard time believing that is NOT an hdr.

KAC
It's not an HDR! :) LOL!

[kenyc]

It's not an HDR! :) LOL!

And you know this because?

KAC

[david888lee]

And you know this because?

KAC

it's not an hdr, like i said in the original post :]. i used a hi-tech filter to bring out the clouds. and boosted saturation a little bit in the raw file. other than that no other processing. even i couldn't believe it wasn't hdr.

this is what it would look like in hdr... in case you're wondering.
209633

[silvex]

We are just trying to learn from each other. Here is YET another angle...

[Laramie]

Was this shot yesterday?! I was on the 91 West headed out to Tustin and the Sunset and colors of the clouds were amazing. I was so upset I didn't have my camera with me.

[Kristy]

Was this shot yesterday?! I was on the 91 West headed out to Tustin and the Sunset and colors of the clouds were amazing. I was so upset I didn't have my camera with me.

I'm getting homesick.. I used to live in Tustin... I miss the area.. miss the beachy sunsets.. Keep shooting guys! :)

[david888lee]

Was this shot yesterday?! I was on the 91 West headed out to Tustin and the Sunset and colors of the clouds were amazing. I was so upset I didn't have my camera with me.

yea, this was yesterday :]

[kenyc]

it's not an hdr, like i said in the original post :]. i used a hi-tech filter to bring out the clouds. and boosted saturation a little bit in the raw file. other than that no other processing. even i couldn't believe it wasn't hdr.

this is what it would look like in hdr... in case you're wondering.
209633

I'm not really doubting you, it's just the colors, particularly on the rocks look so unreal. Wondering if you'd be willing to post the original without processing?

KAC

[david888lee]

here is the unprocessed jpeg file.
209674

note: i used the raw version when processing it, so i was able to correct exposure and shadow/highlight, etc.

[david888lee]

here are the other two exposures @ -2, and +2, since originally i was going to do an HDR image, however, after seeing my results i felt that i didn't need to.

209675

209676

[kenyc]

here is the unprocessed jpeg file.
209674

note: i used the raw version when processing it, so i was able to correct exposure and shadow/highlight, etc.

Cool, thanks David!

KAC

[david888lee]

Cool, thanks David!

KAC

np KAC :]

[argyle]

Were you using a standard GND or a colored gradual filter? Just curious.

[david888lee]

standard 3 stop hard

[Jackie Merritt]

What's perfection??? I think we need to appreciate that we all see colour differently and have our own personal preferences for composition. Isn't it great that we all don't think the same?! This is a great shot, whatever!