Critique: Cliffs of Westcape Howe

Taken close to the farthest point south on the Western Australian Coastline in wild spring weather. The sandy white beaches meet looming two hundred meter granite cliffs and bauxite rich gravels atop of them.

This is essentially a full framer taken with the 7D,
Sigma 17-70mm,
1/100/
f/18
ISO400
hand held.

Your critique would be appreciated:

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I like the foreground, the rocks seem to direct your eyes to the sloping edge up to the top of the cliff, across the straight horizon and to the left side and back down. Nice eye movement. Maybe if it was a little brighter and less dull looking, that might help put some pizazz in it. I'd like to see this with a little HDR treatment, not much just a little to intensify sky. I decided to try some modifications.

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I agree. To me, it's just...dull. As Ed said, I think a little HDR would add a lot to the shot. Maybe a little more saturation.

I would crop off the entire top 1/3 of the photo. the sky is super dull and the random person on the right side of the photo undoes it for me.

but the waves and rocks in the foreground look great.

My eye's drawn to the centre and it's frustrating not to be able to see down to where the waves are coming in. The foreground rocks and sand are interesting, but not interesting enough to justify the proportion of the frame they occupy. All up, I fear you'd probably need to be almost over the edge with a super-wide to do the place full justice. The person solidifies the dramatic scale, but at some aesthetic cost. The image is also very obviously over-sharpened... see the brighter halo and discolouration along the high-contrast edges? It makes the foreground look pasted on. Sky has more than average interest, but the shot overall's lacking a little. Now, if you kindly asked the walker to instead dive for the camera... . Hmmm... scrub that.

Thank ppl for the honest feedback, that's what I am after - I really wanted your opinion on this one and want more from others too.

I spent three days in this area without a tripod - I was hiking [with hikers] and couldn't afford the extra weight so some limitations were put on the technique. HDR would have been awesome and something I probably won't miss next time ... until I weight up my gear!

When developing the image I was really after quite a dull effect, as this was the order of the weekend. Dull light presented from quite thick clouds with light still low on the horizon even at midday at this low point from the north. For me, there was some particular mood in the shot, yes a but dull and needs some piazza ... but I wasn't sure where.

I'd like to see some ideas on how to really improve the sky or tutorials from you to improve the image overall from the single exposure. There is a LOT of available detail in this image, even if hand held, and I'd like to make the most of it.

Thanks again.

tonydee wrote in post #10974447
My eye's drawn to the centre and it's frustrating not to be able to see down to where the waves are coming in. The foreground rocks and sand are interesting, but not interesting enough to justify the proportion of the frame they occupy. All up, I fear you'd probably need to be almost over the edge with a super-wide to do the place full justice. The person solidifies the dramatic scale, but at some aesthetic cost. The image is also very obviously over-sharpened... see the brighter halo and discolouration along the high-contrast edges? It makes the foreground look pasted on. Sky has more than average interest, but the shot overall's lacking a little. Now, if you kindly asked the walker to instead dive for the camera... . Hmmm... scrub that.

Hehe, I have a shot with the walker cloned out entirely, however didn't in this post due to some pathetic oversight.

I have a shot at about 17mm (about 27mm on my cropped 7D) at a closer angle to the cliff, however that is not what I was showing in this image.

I actually like the shots alot. Only thinkg i would do differently is maybe include a little bit less rocck on the bottom. Good shots

It is a little flat, and IMO you don't need a fake HDR to improve this shot. Bring up the exposure on the foreground rocks about 1/2-stop...use a layer mask so as not to affect the water or sky. Pull up the shadows just a bit on the rocks, again using a layer mask to keep the sky/water as is. Add a contrast enhancement layer to give it some pop, and you should be done.

Here's a side-by-side...original on left, edited version on right. The changes are subtle and in keeping with the overcast mood. Changes are as mentioned above...no saturation boosts, no color boosts (there's also someone in a blue windbreaker on top of the right-hand cliff...he/she could be cloned out). Contrast adjustments are like cooking...season to taste. If this looks too much, you could back off on that if you re-do the image.

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Nice rendition Argyle. Agree with Ed re the composition. Nice image.

argyle wrote in post #10980568
It is a little flat, and IMO you don't need a fake HDR to improve this shot. Bring up the exposure on the foreground rocks about 1/2-stop...use a layer mask so as not to affect the water or sky. Pull up the shadows just a bit on the rocks, again using a layer mask to keep the sky/water as is. Add a contrast enhancement layer to give it some pop, and you should be done.

Here's a side-by-side...original on left, edited version on right. The changes are subtle and in keeping with the overcast mood. Changes are as mentioned above...no saturation boosts, no color boosts (there's also someone in a blue windbreaker on top of the right-hand cliff...he/she could be cloned out). Contrast adjustments are like cooking...season to taste. If this looks too much, you could back off on that if you re-do the image.

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Thank you for you sensible approach argyle. While appreciating others efforts and crtique, your adjustments and advice are the best in this instance.

I really wanted to maintain the greyness in the image and demonstrate the looming dark weather and show off the cliffs and vegetation a lot more and you have done it well.

I shot this with the 7D and am wondering what I could have done in camera to get more out of the light. I had a good look at the historgram and it was well balanced, any exposure on the rocks would have meant blown out clouds. Also any thoughts on the composition (which I do like anyway) or any other aspects appreciated from anyone.

You're welcome. You probably could have benefitted from the use of a graduated neutral density filter. In lieu of using filters, one option would have been to meter off the brightest area of the clouds, then open up by about 1.5 full stops. Then in post, work with exposure adjustment, shadow/highlight, and mild fill light as needed. Still another option would have been to take two exposures (sky and foreground), and then blend afterwards in Photoshop or other editing software. This is why I prefer the use of filters...

I rather like the composition. You have a strong foreground element in the rocks, and the patch of sand at the bottom of the frame, along with the triangular-shaped rock, tends to form an arrow pointing into the frame.