Help me improve this photo

PaulStat · Nov 27, 2005

My Mum loves this photo, so she wants a print of it for Xmas, being a harsh critic of my own work however i'm not too keen on it, and If I am going to get a print of it for her I want to clean it up as best as possible in photoshop. Anyway some suggestions for how to do this

OTE

duncanp · Nov 27, 2005

ermmm... i suggest enhancing the colours maybe by increasing the blue in the picture, try to do they equivelent of a warm up filter or shooting with your camera set to cloudy. i dont think the contrast needs any work though.

PaulStat · Nov 27, 2005

Ok bit more work, so colour:

Or B&W:

duncanp · Nov 27, 2005

i dont think the black and white suites the picture, it seems to lose the atmosphere of the shot. Be careful of the waves turning too purple if you over do the colours

Rapala46 · Nov 27, 2005

If I were you, I wouldn't do anything to the pictre. I think it is awesome the way it is. And by the way, DEFINATLY color!

Soraiden · Nov 27, 2005

I definitely like the color version best...

PaulStat · Nov 28, 2005

Thanks guys, colour it is then

, just gotta get rid of that little bit of lens flare on the sea, could be tricky

alexecho · Nov 28, 2005

I'd say that as it's for someone else who has seen it and liked it in it's current state, you should 'improve' it as little as possible. If you can get rid of the lens flair do so, if there is any detail in the blown out sky, bring it out a little bit (could be this monitor), but always remember when a picture is for someone else it's got to be how they like it, not how you like it.

Digital Matt · Nov 28, 2005

I'd say add more contrast. If you look at the histogram, you are no where near a black point. Then you can use a selective color adjustment layer to enhance the colors a bit.

northman · Nov 28, 2005

In PhotoShop CS there is an adjustment called shadow/highlight where you can adjust blown out or darkened areas without affecting the rest of the shot. I think this might help this shot to get a little more detail. I've been using it with nice success on some of mine.