A beach in the Netherlands

[johansjoholm]

I already posted these in the landscape section, and I'm quite happy with them. I would, however, appreciate feedback on what to improve in composition, post-processing etc in order to become a better photographer.

1:


2:

[Qbx]

I think they are both well composed and processed. I normally don't associate The Netherlands with beaches; but I'd enjoy seeing who comes out during summer.

[letsbewild]

I think they're both just about perfect as is - the first shot is breathtaking!

[navydoc]

I really like both shots...and I don't normally think of beaches when I think of the Netherlands either.

One comment on the first image. I think it would be more effective if the shadows were lifted slightly to show the sillouettes of the people better...and that one flare removed (to the left of the swing set).

I hope you don't mind but here's an example showing the people a bit better and the flare removed.

[tupper]

as Navydoc has edited above, that first photo looks incredible just with that little bit of brightness increase. It was a little dark before.
You could also experiment with brightening the foreground even more so

[johansjoholm]

Thank you for your comments, an especially navydoc for improving my picture. Yes I like your version better. As I'm new to postprocessing, how exactly did you do it? For the time being I only use DPP for postprocessing and can therefore not do any local adjustments to the images.

[navydoc]

Johan, I use Photoshop CS5 so I ran your original through DPP to see what I could do. If you play around with the 'tone curve' adjustments, you should be able to 'open up' the dark areas of your image. I first pulled the diagonal line up from the center then brought down the brightest tones a bit and did the same for the darks so it wouldn't wind up being too bright. If you shot in RAW, you'll have better control than I did using your jpg image.

Here's a quick edit using DPP...which I have no experience with using. I probably should have opened up the dark areas a bit more.