Maine Lighthouse #2 - Levels?

redleash

I worked on this one some more, trying to account for the various suggestions I thought would help, without taking away from those who thought it was already nice. I really love this shot, more and more each time I look at it. I am sooooo disappointed I do not have the RAW file anymore, but I am trying to save my original JPG and work from copies. Please continue with C&C if you have some. Does the wider view in #3 lose some of the perspective of the underneath view? I removed the blurred rocks at bottom but I wonder if I've lost something comp-wise?

I am so excited to have generated some detailed discussion about one of my photos, especially in view of the fact that the consensus is that it is good!

Thanks to all!
Lauren

To hawkeye: Thanks for the detailed suggestions on rocks; but I'm using PS Elements so can't do as much.
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My original post:

Here is another lighthouse shot. I like the composition and crop of this one but did I overdo it on the levels adjustment? You can see my continuing lighting problem in the original. I also was not able to save my RAW images as my brother's computer did not import them as I'd hoped. These are all JPEG-Fine at Large size, adjusted in Aperture. (Lesson learned--get a portable drive or a laptop for travel!)

Thanks for any comments. Lauren
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#1 - My first post, after basic crop, minor levels and shadows/highlights


#2 - Post-critique - enhanced rocks and shadows using levels and S/H


#3 - Post-critique - same as #2 but with more crop to rocks at bottom

hawkeye978

On my monitor it looks good. I think you may want to do some local adjustment within the shadow area just below the lighthouse. Maybe try a shadows/highlights adjustment? Also, the area in the bottom of the picture is out of focus. It may be interesting to see how the picture feels if you crop that section so you are in focus throughout the entire picture. I really like the perspective.

schmoo

Hi Lauren,

I think you did a fine job! If anything I think the rocks could use even more pop. What draws me eye more are the couple of dust specs I see in the sky as dark spots, though.

jeffmeyers

I don't think you overdid it. There's a whole lot of potential here. But I would encourage you to shoot in RAW with shots like this. RAW gives you a whole lot more date to manipulate without loosing image quality.

I would do a lot more work on this to bring out the striations in the rocks.

I really like the shot!

cmkultradome

Nice job!!
I really like the angle of the shot. I think the colors look great. Which lighthouse is this??

Stephanie

Awais Yaqub

Very beautiful composition i like it

Tango

nice shot, very interesting formations.

i like your pp

redleash

Thanks, everyone. Here are some brief comments in response:

1. Shot in RAW + JPEG but the images only saved as JPEG on my bro's laptop. At home, I shoot almost exclusively in RAW. But . . . that doesn't help if I finally capture a good shot when I'm on the road. Arrgghh!
2. I cropped out some of the blurry rocks at the bottom already but I wondered about taking out the rest. I'll give it a try.
3. Didn't even see the dust spots, so thanks to Schmoo for finding them. I see them now in the edited version but definitely not in the original. I REALLY need to get my sensor cleaned...but that's a whole other thread topic.
4. I will try my hand at the rocks. Any suggestions on how to best bring out the striations and the "pop?"
5. This is Pemaquid Point Lighthouse, on the eastern side of Pemaquid Point in Midcoast Maine. Here's a link http://www.pemaquidpoint.org/
(I don't endorse this site, just found it via Google.)

Thanks to all!
Lauren

dgrits

I think its a terrific composotion!! The lines and textures in the rocks lead you right up to the prize at the top.

The levels and lighting look great in the modified one... very well done!

Dan

hawkeye978

My suggestion as far as the rocks would be to first select the rocks and create a mask. I use 'Select Color' in Photoshop to generate a mask for items such as this. Then, if working in RGB color space, using the mask you can do a curves adjustment to increase the contrast and possibly also use a Color Balance adjustment to bring out some of the colors. Alternately, if you work in the LAB colorspace, you can do all that just with a Curves adjustment against the mask and steepen the A and B curves symmetrically.

redleash

Latest edits - see top
Please see my original post above for new edits. Thanks. Lauren

jeffmeyers

redleash wrote:

Please see my original post above for new edits. Thanks. Lauren

Those are nice, Lauren. Good work. Now clone out those people. They are a distraction from the main subject matter!

redleash

Thanks, Jeff. I'd wondered about that also.

I've now cloned out the humans and will order prints of both crops. I'll let ya'll know how they turn out.

Thanks, everyone!