Sailing Far Far Away

[steadzy]

Here goes my first attempt at this...

I took this photo to show the feeling of going somewhere far beyond the horizons. Black and white is to show the heavy mood of leaving. Please give me feedback on composition and how to improve in creating the black and white feeling of this photo. Thanks!

[theveed]

Unfortunately, your main subject (ship) is too underexposed. While I do understand that metering the sky's brightest part allowed you to capture the clouds pretty well, the subject isn't the cloud, but the ship. metering the ship and reducing half a stop or so would be a better compromise IMO. Right now, it's hard to tell unless you look at the wave patterns closely, if the ship is arriving or leaving, unless you squint and see teh ship's name.

[steadzy]

Thanks for the feedback!!

[theveed]

Sorry for not being thorough. I'm sure you can pull more shadow detail from the boat using Shadow/Highlight and Curves. In addition, you might want to consider expanding the tonal range of your photo covering from black to white, not just grey tones. Right now, you can sacrifice some highlights to pull the image better.

How did you convert this BTW?

[theveed]

Sent you a PM by the way

[night86mare]

1) Not sure if it actually shows the idea of leaving, I don't get the idea of leaving, because the ship seems inward bound towards perspective of photographer, in fact I have no idea how you are going to show the idea of leaving with just a simple ship. Perhaps if there was someone looking at the ship in the foreground?

2) Tilted horizon, not very obvious but still perceptible, need to rotate 0.5 degrees ACW

3) Black and white alone does not convey nostalgia that well here, perhaps with some grain and toning

4) As others have mentioned, shadows/highlights tool in PS is your best friend, as is HDR in some cases, but not needed here



PPed a little further with what you posted, let me know if you want it down, cheers!

[theveed]

Since nightmare posted an image, might as well post the image I PM'd you with hehe



Sorry a bit oversharpened.

[tionghan]

Originally Posted by theveed Since nightmare posted an image, might as well post the image I PM'd you with hehe Sorry a bit oversharpened.

ah.. much better

[matman]

Amazing how much detail is now visible. Looks better.

[steadzy]

thanks for all the advice given so far... will go n try out n improve on my newbie photoshop skills haha. Really amazed at those details that you ppl highlighted to me... appreciated!

[theveed]

Bro, one of your challenges is this pic is high contrast between the clouds and the ship. Don't immediately think it's PP that is the culprit. You have to analyze the scene a little differently if you INTEND to shoot in b&w to begin with.

See how much highlights you're willing to sacrifice in the clouds in order to get some shadow details during the shot (a gradient filter will help).

In PP, shoot RAW for maximum flexibility. Just process the RAW file like as if you've bracketed the shot twice, you'll process the shadows first, then the highlights, merge the two file and mask accordingly.

Good luck

[queeresque]

Originally Posted by theveed Since nightmare posted an image, might as well post the image I PM'd you with hehe Sorry a bit oversharpened.

I really really like this.

[theveed]

steadzy had a good shot, just metered slightly incorrectly and maybe his conversion needs some work... good base to start from, though