Well, the day was a little contrasty, so your shadows are going to be darkish. I suppose you could open two layers, and adjust them differently, and then blend them to reduce the contrast. But I like the exposure, and there still seems to be detail in both the shadows and the highlights -- that's good!
Maybe you are reacting to the way both his eyes and the fishing rod cast in the same strong direction, diagonally out of the frame, with nothing subtle to bring your eye back in??
It's just a bit too wide, IMO. You say "Fishing" and you expect to see a man standing there with a fishing pole in the water, and that's what you get. We see the man, his clothes, the rod, the house, the ocean, the sky... perhaps zooming in and focusing on his expression, the light on his features or his hands would give the story a little extra nudge? If the scene has to be wide, then I would like to see the figure of the man smaller and interacting in some way with the landscape, be it to give scale or emphasize the terrain, etc.
It may be the case
Of looking at it too long. I don't think there's anything incorrect about the shot. I like the conversion, the shadows against the highlights work well for a nice contrasted image. Good angle a view. It might be that it's all it will be as we all have many images like that. Don't worry, be happy . There really isn't much you can do to "improve" the shot per se. You may want to do some dodge and burn to bring out the reel and a few other interesting features..who knows...might make it pop a bit more. Yea, some help I am huh?
I like the composition , but I am not sure the conversion works. I am wondering if the cloud behind him should be much lighter. Skin tones also.....but the shirt will blow if a mask isnt used. Maybe if using CS3 you could brighten the yellows and reds in the BW adjuster panel....this tends to brighten skin tones.
I think you can put in a little bit of drama into the photo ... I know, I took it a bit to the extreme now, but I agree, I think you might want to try burning/dodging the water & the sky a bit ....
Hope you like it now...I did a little post processing in CS3...darken the background a little, and added a little brightness to the man. Also of course added the Serenity...it's what I thought of when I viewed the picture.
You know...this is really a good shot - your DOF is great...and the over picture itself is very sharp.
Comments
Maybe you are reacting to the way both his eyes and the fishing rod cast in the same strong direction, diagonally out of the frame, with nothing subtle to bring your eye back in??
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Of looking at it too long. I don't think there's anything incorrect about the shot. I like the conversion, the shadows against the highlights work well for a nice contrasted image. Good angle a view. It might be that it's all it will be as we all have many images like that. Don't worry, be happy
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The images I see...
Hope you like it now...I did a little post processing in CS3...darken the background a little, and added a little brightness to the man. Also of course added the Serenity...it's what I thought of when I viewed the picture.
You know...this is really a good shot - your DOF is great...and the over picture itself is very sharp.