Ok, so I was messing around with photoshop over a rainy weekend basically just trying to get some practice. I don't use photoshop that much but have been using it more/trying to get to know it better recently. The 2 photos I used to create this are also both 3-4 years old. I like to think I've gotten a little bit better at photography since then. Anyway, just curious as to what people think about something like this? Does it look super fake? I was also trying to treat this as more "digital art" then just a photograph. There are certain things I don't like about it that I couldn't get to look quite right. The light on the roof of the little house for instance. Also the big bright spot in the middle of the sky. I tried using several of the patch tools to fix it but could never get it to look quite right so I ended up just leaving it.
The last time I was at this location was in the middle of the day so there weren't many options for a good photo. Hence why I was playing around with the sky. I need to get back out to the outer banks but it's not exactly a short drive from where I live. I may continue to play around with replacing the sky in some of these photos. Would love to hear any suggestions people have for how I could improve this photo/image. One of hardest things for me in doing a sky replacement is trying to get the color balance right. Anyways, just thought I would share this and see what people think. Don't be too harsh ;-)
Hi Kyle
Yes the blown out patch in the sky is too bright
To me there's a few little issues with the image.
Composition: the tip of the lighthouse is cut. It asks for more room for breathing on the top. Also the lighthouse doesn't relate to the trail. The latter creates a very strong leading path to the bright sky which is kinda cool, but the lighthouse is set aside and doesn't relate to it. Try cropping from the right and just cutting the whole lighthouse - you get even a stronger image. Also the dead tree on the left looks cool but it's cut and doesn't add a lot to the composition.
Long exposure clouds also create strong leading lines but they converge away from the lighthouse.
Technically, there's lots of hot pixels in the sky due to the long exposure, they can be seen when the image is opened full size. Also there's strange artifacts and dark halo around the three in the middle and the dead tree.
Be careful with the sky replacement, but if you do the replacement, you could try the clouds converging to the lighthouse and also add more space on the top so that the lighthouse doesn't touch the top edge of the image.
Hi Michael, thanks for the critique. I noticed the hot pixels as well. I seem to get them in a lot of my long exposure images, especially when going over a couple of minutes. Do you have any advice on how to avoid these? Does the censor need to be cleaned or is something else causing them? Thanks
I get a lot of hot pixels during long exposures, especially at night at high ISOs. Unfortunately they require some manual work.
In Lightroom, when you're in Spot Removal tool, there's 'visualize spots' option in the toolbar. It helps a bit especially if the hot pixels are on the monotonic parts of the image like the sky. It also helps find the dust spots on the sensor. Then I just use spot removal in Lightroom or in Photoshop.
Hey Kyle, Michael gave a very complete assessment so I'm just going to say that i think the lighting is interesting. Cutting the tip of the lighthouse off though. ... ouch!
:)
Yeah, like I said these pictures are from 3-4 years a go when I was just getting in to photography. I'm much more "aware" of my composition now.
It's your call about colours if you're thinking "digital art", Kyle, rather than an evocation of reality. For me though, the warm tones of the boardwalk don't correspond with the strong purple/magenta sky it's reflecting.
Michael has made good points, especially about the compositon, Kyle. I would say, more subjectively, that the image looks disjointed as a result of the path/lighthouse disconnect, like two different images side-by-side. I particularly agree about not "cutting" key compositional elements at frame edge, that they need to "breathe".
Your compositions HAVE improved since, I think, Kyle! And composition is the starting point - no point finessing an image that's not compositionally strong. So I say work on more recent ones! Hope we're not too harsh... ;-)
Haha, not at all. Thanks for the comment!