Two Fireworks Photos and a Water Skier at Sunset

AgentDrex · Jul 5, 2011

Water Skier
#1

This was my first time capturing fireworks and so there are a few problems right off the bat for me. First, no recognizable foreground elements and no reflections. But not too noisy and good coloring I believe. I now know how easy it is to photograph fireworks so hopefully I will be more prepared next time around. I don't want to bore you all with fireworks photos that everyone will be posting so I will just show off the two I like. And they are:

Fireworks
#2

#3

tirediron · Jul 5, 2011

Nice captures 'Drex!

AgentDrex · Jul 5, 2011

Hopefully next year will be better. This time around was a bust. But it was my first so I didn't go in expecting a masterpiece. Sad, stupid story for future reference. Do NOT, I repeat DO NOT get into a groove deleting photos. Before the fireworks, a small but active storm passed through so I spent my time waiting attempting to get a lightning shot. Lightning all over but not when I had the shutter open. Finally I got one. Turned out real well in the composition I was shooting. Nice big fork from sky to land. I had taken about a hundred photos trying to get that one bolt. So to clear up space on the card, I started deleting the ones with no lightning bolt. Keep in mind when that ONE photo you really like is still on camera, it may be good to protect it. I got into such a groove, I went and deleted the lightning photo. I felt like Charlton Heston in Planet of the Apes when he sees the Statue of Liberty.

johnh2005 · Jul 5, 2011

Nice captures all around. I really like number 3. Nice exposure time on that one. The only nitpick I have (and I am NOT a professional) is with the water skier. I think a tighter crop would be more appealing. With the trees on the right it sorta stops the movement. Also, there does not seem (to me) to be enough focus on the skier and more of a sunset/sunrise with a skier in it. This is what I did with it. I am sure others can do better.

GreatPhotoRace · Jul 5, 2011

johnh2005 said:
Nice captures all around. I really like number 3. Nice exposure time on that one. The only nitpick I have (and I am NOT a professional) is with the water skier. I think a tighter crop would be more appealing. With the trees on the right it sorta stops the movement. Also, there does not seem (to me) to be enough focus on the skier and more of a sunset/sunrise with a skier in it. This is what I did with it. I am sure others can do better.

I agree with this. The sunlight is a bit overwhelming. I think you should reduce the light from the sun in PP a bit to put more focus on the skier.

AgentDrex · Jul 5, 2011

I had thought of this earlier and had done a crop, just didn't include it in this thread, until now:

Destin · Jul 5, 2011

I like the sun being in the image. It just needs to get toned down a bit.
Just mask it off with a large feather and take it down a stop or two so it doesn't draw your eye to it as much.

Or if you have lightroom just use the adjustment brush.

AgentDrex · Jul 5, 2011

I will do that Destin, thanks for the advice man!

AgentDrex · Jul 5, 2011

Okay, so I suck at this so far, I notice some green popped in when I reduced the brightness of the sun...what can I say outside of I'm an idiot?

SecondShot · Jul 5, 2011

::swoooooonn:: on that waterskier photo. Love it!

johnh2005 · Jul 5, 2011

AgentDrex said:
Okay, so I suck at this so far, I notice some green popped in when I reduced the brightness of the sun...what can I say outside of I'm an idiot?

You could say, "I am new to PP and I am not sure how I made a green tint to the sun that I was trying to darken up some. This is what I did: blah blah blah. Can anyone recommend a better way?" :hug::

AgentDrex · Jul 5, 2011

I could but again, just for reference, I AM an idiot. I'm not all that new to PP, been using Photoshop and GiMP for a decade. There are just so many facets to these programs, I still have yet to learn everything they could possibly do. I copied layer...loaded it as a selection, chose black as paint color, used burn to darken highlights...

Point taken by the way john...I will keep that in mind for future posts...must remember to tell what I did so people can tell me if I did something illogically/what-not...and get me going in the right direction...thanks for keeping me focused...