After the Oil; Manlipo Cove (S. Korea)

[Silverbackmp]

The other day I had wanted to go down (from Seoul) to Manlipo, S. Korea to shoot some photos for the PJ section. Manlipo is where S. Korea recently had it's worst oil spill in it's history. By the time we got down there it was approaching dusk and I didn't get any really good PJ shots. It was very cold (-10 C?), very windy, and snowing. My 18-200 VR sucks in these conditions even with the ISO bumped up (17-55mm F/2.8 is on the way!!! yeah!!!). I did capture one decent image (even if I forgot to turn the ISO back down for the landscape--frozen fingers and a numb mind only go so far). Please critiqe the post processing (mostly plenty of contrast in RAW, NIK noise reduction, and sharpening), technique, and composition. I know forground is lacking but there was nothing to include except the flat concrete dock that I was standing on.

 

[AncientSnapper]

Hi, nice captured.

I'm not sure about the composition, but can not suggest any other crop!

Re the post-processing, then I think one could add a touch of local contrast (4pixels) and colour (lab saturation + blown hilights) - like this...

If you have not met this technique before, then I've put it as a photoshop action on my web site.

Well done

 

[Silverbackmp]

Looks sigficantly better. I will try your action and see if works in elements. Thanks for the advice and comments.

Mike

 

[Silverbackmp]

Nah, couldn't get the action to work in elements 5.0. I think the following is the closest that I will get to it with the software I have. I probably should have gone with the full photoshop but decided to spend on quality plugins instead. I adjusted basic contrast and saturation with layers and played with opacity (around 40-50%).

 

[AncientSnapper]

I'm slowly learning, and one of the points that I think is very important is contrast (in the areas one wants it), and although one can curve, other techniques (like the LocalContrast one) can be extremely effective. Sorry I couldnt help you.
Good luck

 

[Silverbackmp]

I'm slowly learning, and one of the points that I think is very important is contrast...... Sorry I couldnt help you.
Good luck

But you did help! I realized the image was somewhat flat from your edit.

Thanks!