Watching people watching

saltydog

Okay, so I am going through my galleries to make some room and determine what to toss. That's how I came across this shot and I would love to know what you guys think.

This initially caught my attention by the somewhat unsual grouping as well as the irony of gradually slimming waist lines from left to right. I assume this is a family or they are very close friends, judging by how close they are standing together. They were watching some surfers, presumably members of the family as well, but the surfers are almost to far away to be seen - as much as I would have loved to have one of the surfers zooming by at close range, that just didn't happen...




Allright, I am very much against altering an image by way of removing/cloning out elements, but this is one of the few where I gave it a try - does this enhance a surreal effect or just make it somewhat bland? I cloned out the surfers in the far back, so we really don't know why these people are standing there...




And last but not least, I made a color adjustment, based on the manipulated photo but of course it would work for the first one as well. I changed it to a more correct blue, but it is actually the overcast greenish glow that is more accurate to what it really looked like:



So, what do you guys like best? Or should I toss this altogether? Any input is appreciated!

Thanks,
Jana

Skippy

saltydog wrote:

Okay, so I am going through my galleries to make some room and determine what to toss. That's how I came across this shot and I would love to know what you guys think.

This initially caught my attention by the somewhat unsual grouping as well as the irony of gradually slimming waist lines from left to right. I assume this is a family or they are very close friends, judging by how close they are standing together. They were watching some surfers, presumably members of the family as well, but the surfers are almost to far away to be seen - as much as I would have loved to have one of the surfers zooming by at close range, that just didn't happen...

Allright, I am very much against altering an image by way of removing/cloning out elements, but this is one of the few where I gave it a try - does this enhance a surreal effect or just make it somewhat bland? I cloned out the surfers in the far back, so we really don't know why these people are standing there...

And last but not least, I made a color adjustment, based on the manipulated photo but of course it would work for the first one as well. I changed it to a more correct blue, but it is actually the overcast greenish glow that is more accurate to what it really looked like:

So, what do you guys like best? Or should I toss this altogether? Any input is appreciated!

Thanks,
Jana

Hi Jana,
I'm going to choose the first image.
Removing the surfers, makes it look like they are all just looking at nothing or even down at the sand.

All three images look good, but I prefer the first one myself
... Skippy
.

redleash

I like #2
I actually like the middle one--to me, the water color looks more realistic (the greenish hue as you point out). Without the surfers in the background, I think the image opens ideas to the viewer . . . just what are they looking at?

Lauren

darkdragon

Picture #3
Well, not trying to be difficult here but I like the 3rd image the best. I think that the 3rd image could be easily made into some sort of office poster with a saying like "Imagine the Possibilities" or some such.

I like the blue-er water better because the green water just looks very dirty up by the shoreline.

The surfers in the first one are very distracting and hard to make out what they are. It just looks like dots or rocks, who knows.