\"Boca Boggie\" Please Have No Mercy

[Mariner]

Ok, This is my first post. Don't hold back....give it to me! I can take it!

http://www.pbase.com/image/3677343

[Conk]

I absolutely love it. I'm no pro but one thing I did find right away was that the pier took my attention away from the skim boarder.(That is what he's doing right?)
The colour and freezing the water in air are great!

[cgesteland]

Wow! Great wave! You must have superb reflexes. I agree with Conk, however, the pier tends to drag the eye away from the main subject, the boca boogier.

I suggest cropping the pier and sharpening the shot just a tad with PS.

Please keep posting!

[Mariner]

Great feedback! I have always tried to get the objects in my frame to "lead" to the subject, and I was trying to figure out a way to do this with the pier. Yes when I look at it now, You are so right, it leads your eye away...I will try some cropping. By the way, to sharpen yes,,but ....what is PS? Thanks!

[Conk]

Photoshop

[eland]

Hi
Your shot is good, more so as the delay in digital cameras
often makes one miss "the moment".

I agree with the others about the pier being a distraction.
Where I live I tend to take shots of waves breaking on
rocks and most are not good ! The reason is the horizon.

The sky is usually a couple of stops lighter than the water.
On your excellent shot I would crop it to just below the horizon. That leaves the arch of water intact.

Immediately one's eye rests on the man and the water.
That's what you want us to look at.
I'd be tempted to darken the supports on the right for
the same reason. To minimise distraction.

If you have a version of PhotoShop even LE, the less
expensive one, you'll find sharpen this way.
Click Filter --- Sharpen ---- Unsharp Mask.
This will give you overall sharpening and you can control
the amount by moving the slider and seeing the effect
previewed before you decide.

Most photo-programs have a sharpening tool of some kind.
It doesn't have to be PhotoShop, though it is the industry standard and excellent.

Regards
eland

[Mariner]

Now..THAT is what I call a great critique!
Informative and your intelligent opinion and along with some some helpful suggestions!
Yes, I do have Photoshop Elements. I was wondering how to sharpen, and your instructions are very helpful. Thanks for taking your time to help me to gain a little bit on my goal. Your response is why these forums work.

[eland]

Hello again, Mariner,

Thank you very sincerely for your kind words.
As you say, helping one another is what the forums are for.

I learnt and am still learning compostion, theory and photo manipulation
the hard way. Trial and lots of errors. If I can save others
from some of the frustrations along the way, I'm very happy to help.

By the way in Unsharp Mask (silly name) keep the pixel radius under 1. Usually between 0.4 and 0.7 is OK.

When sharpening, one seldom needs more than 120% , if that.
Have the Preview box checked and you'll see the changes on your actual image as you move the slider.

If you overdo the sharpening
1. The image starts looking artificial.
2. The image starts breaking down.

Don't be afraid to experiment.
You can always Undo the sharpening after closing the
Unsharp Mask (click OK) by clicking Control - Z (= Undo).

Have fun, Mariner. With your excellent Boca Boogie
image you are off to a flying start.

eland

[philgabe]

Hi guys:

Same comment regarding the pier. Otherwise, perfect timing for the shot.

As far as unsharp mask, I've found that around 50%-100% works well with radius of around 1.0 for backgrounds where there is not much details and around 500% with very low radius around 0.1-0.2 works well with backgrounds (and photos) that have a lot of details (increase threshold a bit perhaps). There have been lots of threads on here and other forums regarding sharpening techniques (Roger Cav. has nice summary on his site, Pekka has PS action, etc.)...playing around with tese things is very useful.

Philippe