My wife at the beach

PeterGar · March 7, 2005

Since I'm new around here, I figure I'd like to share a couple of my favorite shots. I took these pictures of my wife while at Zuma Beach, California during the summer of 2004 on my Canon A40. I'm rather happy with them, although I do realize they are a bit noisy (I think they were shot at ISO 400).

Comments?

TristanP · March 7, 2005

Those are challenging lighting conditions. I like the first shot - the wind in the hair and wave motion enhances the beach feel. One minor nitpick - straighten that horizon. What's your processing software?

Michiel de Brieder · March 7, 2005

hi Peter,

welcome aboard

I agree with Tristan on the first being the best and the environment to be challenging. I'm gonna confuse you by going straight against Tristan

I'd say straighten the missus! that is: turn the picture some degrees counter clockwise, I think that brings more depth to it, and a nice angle for the background.
Okay, I'm weird :lol

PeterGar · March 7, 2005

TristanP wrote:

Those are challenging lighting conditions. I like the first shot - the wind in the hair and wave motion enhances the beach feel. One minor nitpick - straighten that horizon. What's your processing software?

I use Photoshop Album 2.0 and Photoshop Elements 2.0. I have no idea how to straighten the horizon. Any tips?

PeterGar · March 7, 2005

Michiel de Brieder wrote:

hi Peter,

welcome aboard I agree with Tristan on the first being the best and the environment to be challenging. I'm gonna confuse you by going straight against Tristan I'd say straighten the missus! that is: turn the picture some degrees counter clockwise, I think that brings more depth to it, and a nice angle for the background.
Okay, I'm weird :lol

Thanks! I'll give it a shot!

Cosmic · March 7, 2005

I like the feeling I get from the first pic. Fun and relaxation!

Welcome aboard!

~Heidi~

Michiel de Brieder · March 8, 2005

straightening the horizon

PeterGar wrote:

I use Photoshop Album 2.0 and Photoshop Elements 2.0. I have no idea how to straighten the horizon. Any tips?

Peter,

I don't know if elements has this, but his big Bro does

1. under the eye-dropper tool in the menu you will find a measure tool, select it
2. draw a line with the measure tool that will indicate what you want to have straightened: if you want to straighten the horizon, draw a line along the currently angled horizon, if you want the missus straight, you'd have better luck rotating the canvas manually.
3. Choosing the horizon to be straight: you have used the measure tool and you have drawn a line, got to Image-> Rotate Canvas -> Arbitrary and you'll see that an angle to rotate as already been filled in (it's been taken from the measure tool)
4. click ok

5. rotating manually: I always use the Rectangle Marquee Tool and then I press ctrl+a to select the entire photo.
6. right mouse click on the photo and choose free transform.
7. if you put your mouse just outside the corner of the photo you'll see 2 curved arrows, click with the right mouse and go up and down to experiment.
8. press enter to confirm
That's it

Well, that's it for rotating, now comes the hard part for your photo, you'll need to cut stuff off to make it a straight photograph again..... Because of that, angle is very important when making a composition.

lynnma · March 8, 2005

Welcome Peter

nice light on the first one.

Steve Cavigliano · March 8, 2005

Welcome Peter

I agree with what's been posted so far. The fist pic works, but straightening the horizon would improve it. The glare is just a little too much for me in the 2nd shot.

As mentioned, shooting into the Sun is tough, at best. You did very good with these

Nice to have you join us and keep posting pics :-)

Steve