Still experimenting with that minimal, low horizon! This is an early morning shot of a boat on the horizon. My goal was to create a feeling of vastness and emptiness.
Too dark? Too boring? Feedback welcome.
UPDATE: I added two shots from this.same morning. This is where I started from. It isn't the original but it is just some minor tweaks. What do you think about this version? The second is another from the same time. Soft and grainy and blown out in the upper right. I think I'm trying to make lemonade out of lemons. :(
Like it, Ruth! Not too dark - the brightness looks right for the time of day Not too boring for me at all. Personally I'd tone down the blue, but that as we know is very much a matter of personal taste. This looks just a bit unnatural to me, though.
One thing I would say it that with so little "going on" what IS there invites close scrutiny, so any flaws in execution are more exposed. The boat and sea are slightly unsharp; this may be the online resolution not reflecting the image at your end, but it looks a bit more marked than that.
Also, there are faint blotches in the sky. With an image like this, I find myself looking closely for subtle gradations in tone in the sky, like the rain or sunbeams near the horizon, and I find implausible-looking fluffiness in the blue. It looks a bit like jpeg artifacts, or ones due to processing, as it runs in streaks parallel to the rain/rays.
This in turn reduces the sense of depth, of looking up into a void, which is part of the fundamental appeal of this image for me.
I often selectively increase sharpness, contrast and claruty in the strip of sea in images like this, to heighten the contrast between those textures & tones, and the sky with its lack of any crisp detail.
Agreed on all points Chris. I think it is too soft focus and (gulp) I think my lens was dirty. good grief. One awesome thing about having a forum like this is that, while we can look at our work alone at home and think it looks pretty good. Then, when its posted here, I know I look at mine totally differently. This one wasn't a winner! Not that I am crying over it. It's all good!
A dirty lens is obviously not ideal, Ruth, but unlikely to compromise resolution unless it's really bad (like say a heavy salt spray coating). It's more likely to cause flare, not likely to be a great problem with this image. I suspect your focus was simply slightly off.
Agreed I was thinking the dirt might be the source of the blotches. 😞
It looks like artifact blotchiness, Ruth - there's some in the sea, and it's horizontally streaked. Lens-spot blemishes would be more or less independent of the subject's form. Upshot: may be worth re-processing from scratch (or RAW, actually!)?
I don't know. I don't know if I like it enough at this point to work in it more. I looked back at everything from that day and they all look soft. I added two shots to the main post. This is where I started from. It isn't the original but it is just some minor tweaks. What do you think about this version? The second is another from the same time. Soft and grainy. :(
The second posted image is less "vast" with the higher horizon but a little less blotchy. This one being "cleaner", I suspect further processing has introduced more artifacts in the originally posted version.
The composition isn't quite there in the third, but it does seem sharper. It's almost certianly blown out top right. At FS resolution, I can't see noise in it, shot with about three stops more light.
You haven't set the time in your camera, Ruth. EXIF says it's about 9.30pm!
I don't have any real problems with this as presented. I thought it translated nicely from dawn light to a starry night sky, but then I noticed that one of the stars looked suspiciously like a bit of Harry the Rescue Dog's hair and I needed to clean the monitor.
However, had this been one of my images. I likely would have made a separate layer with just the boat and made it much brighter to balance out the brightness on the right.
Additionally, it's difficult to see on this monitor (I need a bigger and better one), but it looks like there is some banding in the transition from very bright to not-so-bright in the lower right side. This may be an atmospheric layering of mist and clouds, common at morning light over the ocean, or it may be a problem with dynamic range. This happened a lot with my Nikon S9500 and does not happen at all with my D810.
I see the banding now too! Ug. Thank you and HtRD for the input!
Hi Ruth. I really like the feel of this. I like the colors, the subtlety, the composition. I would like to see it tack sharp (I don't have a 50 megapixel camera either). Ditto Chris Jablonski's comments. You have a very good eye.
Thanks Gary! I also think Chris hit the nail on the head!!
Hi Ruth. I do like the abstract concept and see what you were shooting for.
Like Chris I think I'd tone down the blue a little (as he states, purely personal taste). Otherwise I feel it might have helped the balance were the ship a little larger, an might perhaps try cropping a little from right and top to see if that helps.
I do think you're on the right track, and can't wait to see how you develop this.
I think the tiny scale of the vessel creates the sense of vastness, Alan.
I've got plenty of vastness so there will be more!
Yeah, I hear you Chris and am in agreement. I just think it would show better if more identifiable - if not lager than perhaps sharper as per your original message
Hi Ruth. Am sharing a different perspective. I see this work as fine art painting and expressing further in continuation.
Image 1 is appealing the most. bottom blue and top gradation balances. Stoke of yellow on blue background is the focal point of this painting. For the same, the white dot could have a little more prominence? may be a longer (and thicker) line in long exposure?
Standing at the field with gear in hand has so many possibilities. thanking you and community for such meaningful interactions.
Thank you for you kind words and always thoughtful input Vijay!