C&C: boat toward the sunset (cliché title, yes)

[Compaq]

5 or 6 exposures. Photomatix (detail enhancer) followed by some touch ups in PS. My own views follow the image.



Båt Sunde by Anders Myhre Brakestad, on Flickr



Personally, I'm happy with the composition. The boat is going into the frame, placed in one of the thirds intersections. The grey-ish sea and clouds make for a lonely feeling, or some of that sort. The lights on the boat and the sunset match, and I think that's nice as well. The boat is going toward the sunset.

I'm not sure if it's too dark, especially in the tree lines. Also, the water wasn't blurry enough from the exposures, so I helped a little in PS, and then unmasked behind the boat where its natural "trail" would be. Is that overly obvious? I feel so, but that may be because I did it I also fear it's lacking some foreground interest, but I think this works as well.

Thanks for watching!

 

[Nikon_Josh]

Good job, I don't think the lack of foreground interest detracts from the image. There is alot of symmetry in the water that makes up for it.

 

[rexbobcat]

I have tried every possible way to get good looking HDR. I can not get it right, ever. I only use Photoshop though.

I like the composition and the colors. Very peaceful.
I do think that there is a little bit of barrel distortion, which causes the horizon to look a bit uneven.

 

[LightSpeed]

Very very well done.
You have the eye.
Its a beautiful shot.
Boat sitting right on a third power point.
Rule of thirds all over this shyt.
I'm rather fond of what you did with the water in PS.
It is a FINE image.

 

[GnipGnop]

Really well done on this. Only thing that I would change, is to make the darker clouds all look similar to the softer coloured clouds in the top right of the photo. They look more pleasing than the dark ones.

 

[Majeed Badizadegan]

Hello Compaq.

The image as a whole is very nice. Composition is strong.

But, I was bothered by the look of the water, so I went over to Flickr and looked at the original. It appears there is lots of unnatural noise and artifacting around the boat, the water trail,the mountains, and clouds. Is this pixel peeping? I don't know, because I could tell something was wrong even at this size. It is quite visible even at the small resolution here, and it's impossible to ignore in the original.

My best guess would be the artifacts come from over-sharpening.

On a positive note the water looks very clean and this is 66% of your image.

Cheers.

 

[412 Burgh]

I think the water 'trail' is a good leading line to the subject of the boat, I like it! KUDOS!

 

[Compaq]

Hello Compaq.

The image as a whole is very nice. Composition is strong.

But, I was bothered by the look of the water, so I went over to Flickr and looked at the original. It appears there is lots of unnatural noise and artifacting around the boat, the water trail,the mountains, and clouds. Is this pixel peeping? I don't know, because I could tell something was wrong even at this size. It is quite visible even at the small resolution here, and it's impossible to ignore in the original.

My best guess would be the artifacts come from over-sharpening.

On a positive note the water looks very clean and this is 66% of your image.

Cheers.

Yes, I know. I've had this problem. These things come from Photomatix, and I'm not sure how to properly remove them. I've tried adding very little gaussian blur to the areas, but that looks weird. When I think about it, I could probably make a layer mask, do heavy denoise with topaz labs and then mask out everything else.
Any ideas?

 

[RyanSands]

Compaq...totally awesome dude. Love the shot!

 

[Majeed Badizadegan]

Hello Compaq.

The image as a whole is very nice. Composition is strong.

But, I was bothered by the look of the water, so I went over to Flickr and looked at the original. It appears there is lots of unnatural noise and artifacting around the boat, the water trail,the mountains, and clouds. Is this pixel peeping? I don't know, because I could tell something was wrong even at this size. It is quite visible even at the small resolution here, and it's impossible to ignore in the original.

My best guess would be the artifacts come from over-sharpening.

On a positive note the water looks very clean and this is 66% of your image.

Cheers.

Yes, I know. I've had this problem. These things come from Photomatix, and I'm not sure how to properly remove them. I've tried adding very little gaussian blur to the areas, but that looks weird. When I think about it, I could probably make a layer mask, do heavy denoise with topaz labs and then mask out everything else.
Any ideas?

That's an idea. Heavy de-noising will make the things look soft. Not so much a problem for the clouds, but for the boat and water it could be problematic. I don't know what the source of the noise is, whether it is Photomatix or the original exposure.

If you wish, I can work on the exposure stack and see what I can come up with. I'll PM you my e-mail.

 

[jake337]

I like it. Looks like it should be hanging on a wall.

Print it out to 20x30, or larger, and see how it looks.

For me, it's always hard to judge photos online.

 

[Compaq]

Thanks, jake. I don't have a decent printer, nor the proper paper. One day I'll send in some of my images and get them printed, I don't have the knowledge or equipment to do it myself.

dominator, thanks, I'll see what you can do Perhaps I should make it a shootout and see if everyone gets that noise.

 

[tirediron]

Very nice - my only thought on this one is that I would like to see it tilted ever so slightly so that the water is at the same vertical point on both the left and right edges of the frame to help eliminate the slightly off-level appearance. Well shot!

 

[Compaq]

I see your point, tirediron. It does appear to be tilted, but it's not really not. Or maybe it is. The barrel distortion mentioned is due to the coast line not being straight, the centre part of the horizon is much, much farther/further (whichever is correct ) away than the rest.


For those overly interested, this is one of the boats that go between where I live and Bergen (next biggest city in Norway, west coast positioned). I've taken it several times, but never photographed it.

 

[Majeed Badizadegan]

Thanks, jake. I don't have a decent printer, nor the proper paper. One day I'll send in some of my images and get them printed, I don't have the knowledge or equipment to do it myself.

dominator, thanks, I'll see what you can do Perhaps I should make it a shootout and see if everyone gets that noise.

Yeah make it a shootout..

WE haven't had one for a while!