Dawn

[Seb]

I am not quite done with the Islands series. I just found this one in my files...

Comments are welcome.

Seb

[Christian Simpson]

oooo, im feelin this, all i could say is that a smidge more illumination of the house we do good things for me...but overall, wonderfully compsed!

[Christian Simpson]

on second look, i retract my previous statement, its perfect

[LeeIs]

I'm down with the mood Seb. The crop (or vertical vs. horizantal), I'm having a hard time with for some reason. or better put my eyes really wanted to see more of what's on the sides. A bit to the left of the house and what's out there in the ocean. The image as is is pretty good though.

[readingr]

Seb,

I think a little more light in the foreground would be better, would work with the portrait because things wouldn't look so compressed as you can then define edges. IMO the black frame doesn't work with this either.

I love the sky, sea and the composition, I would have probably added a bit more space to the left so that the top of the hill was a little more to the left to balance the shot. Perhaps thats why landscape would be better.

Roger

[Greg McCary]

Another beauty Seb. You have a great attention to detail. I love the way the shoreline S's through the shot. If that makes any sense????
Greg

[Seb]

Thanks guys.

It is rather dark but I think that monitor calibration is an absolute must to truly evaluate this image. I can ensure you that there are visible details everywhere but it might not properly show on all monitors due to the darkness.

I hear your concern about the space (or lack of...) on the left side. I am still debating if it works for me or not lol... The thing is that I don't have another version of this shot...

regards

Seb

[Chrislowshow]

its really soothing, thats all i can say about it that hasnt already been

[Ronnoco]

The composition is good, but technique and postprocessing need some work. Experimenting with the photo, I found that there is a lot of detail in the very dark area that does not show up in your shot. Colour and "punch" can also be improved/changed to produce almost a completely different shot that most would find more interesting and effective. I used PhotoShop to bring up the detail in the dark areas and filter plug-ins in Paint Shop Pro to improve the colour and "punch".

Ronnoco

[Seb]

The composition is good, but technique and postprocessing need some work. Experimenting with the photo, I found that there is a lot of detail in the very dark area that does not show up in your shot. Colour and "punch" can also be improved/changed to produce almost a completely different shot that most would find more interesting and effective. I used PhotoShop to bring up the detail in the dark areas and filter plug-ins in Paint Shop Pro to improve the colour and "punch".

Ronnoco

I'd be interested to see the result of your work.

thanks

Seb

[Seb]

The composition is good, but technique and postprocessing need some work. Experimenting with the photo, I found that there is a lot of detail in the very dark area that does not show up in your shot. Colour and "punch" can also be improved/changed to produce almost a completely different shot that most would find more interesting and effective. I used PhotoShop to bring up the detail in the dark areas and filter plug-ins in Paint Shop Pro to improve the colour and "punch".

Ronnoco

Here is an alternate edit for yours to compare.

I applied a second contrast mask to the foreground to brighen it, dodged the house and applied some selective color saturation on it.

Seb

[yogestee]

Hi Seb,,,,I like it...It is moody and well composed....There is just enough detail in the dark areas to make it interesting....I would have liked to see the house a bit lighter to draw one's attention....Great sky too..

Jurgen

[Ronnoco]

I'd be interested to see the result of your work.

thanks

Seb

OK, what do you think?

Ronnoco

[J-Dogg Productions]

ronocco yours looks a little to overdone the left side is kinda bright i tried one i didnt make the colors pop as much but i think it looks ok the blue one just looked kinda cool so just look at the regular 1 lol.

but anyway nice shot seb

[Ronnoco]

ronocco yours looks a little to overdone the left side is kinda bright i tried one i didnt make the colors pop as much but i think it looks ok the blue one just looked kinda cool so just look at the regular 1 lol.

but anyway nice shot seb

Your blue one could be adjusted to look like a moonlit shot but the sky would need more work J.Dogg. That brown in the sky certainly doesn't work.

Your own comment about your regular one: "I think it looks ok". demonstrates the problem. Slightly "dead" colours are only "ok". Colour is at the heart of colour photography, so it merits close attention. The left side problem by the way is in the original, if you look closely, too.

Ronnoco

[Seb]

Well thanks everyone but with all due respect I think that I'll stick to my second edit.
The thing is, I captured a specific moment in time and the darkness sets the mood. To me, it's a lot about the contrast betwen the land and the bright water. If I wanted something brighter, I would have shot this scene earlier.

You might want to give a look at Michael Reichmann works. He produced higly regarded landscapes where the dark areas were truly dark (fairly darker than mine for what it worths). I do not believe that we must have details everywhere all the time.

Ronnoco, I really don't mean to be insulting but I must question the calibration of your monitor. I sincerly appreciate the effort that you put to demonstrate your vision but your edit looks heavily overdone on my hardware calibrated monitor.

best regards to all

Seb

[Copy_Kot]

One thing I like about Seb's pictures is they all seem to have the same soft feel to them. The edits look good by Ronnoco and J-Dogg, but only if they were taken by someone other than Seb... If that makes any sense.

Another great picture in your list of many Seb, I wouldn't have changed anything.

[Ronnoco]

Ronnoco, I really don't mean to be insulting but I must question the calibration of your monitor. I sincerly appreciate the effort that you put to demonstrate your vision but your edit looks heavily overdone on my hardware calibrated monitor.

best regards to all

Seb

After checking things out, I have found that hardware calibration only means that you have all your equipment working together. Well, like you, what I see on the screen is exactly what I get in a print and my scanner is equally calibrated. However that seems to have limited or no relevance to cross platform imaging.

The point is that you are working on a Mac with an LCD screen, I believe and I am not sure what colour space, and I am using a PC with a CRT monitor and sRGB. Apparently, any MAC photo will display darker on a PC and a PC image will display brighter on a MAC. That would explain why some are seeing details in a dark area (Mac machine viewing a MAC image) while with a darker image on a PC, I am seeing only black. Mac colour management is different too, perhaps more saturated.

For whatever reason, I don't think we are seeing the same thing.

Ronnoco

[Seb]

After checking things out, I have found that hardware calibration only means that you have all your equipment working together. Well, like you, what I see on the screen is exactly what I get in a print and my scanner is equally calibrated. However that seems to have limited or no relevance to cross platform imaging.

The point is that you are working on a Mac with an LCD screen, I believe and I am not sure what colour space, and I am using a PC with a CRT monitor and sRGB. Apparently, any MAC photo will display darker on a PC and a PC image will display brighter on a MAC. That would explain why some are seeing details in a dark area (Mac machine viewing a MAC image) while with a darker image on a PC, I am seeing only black. Mac colour management is different too, perhaps more saturated.

For whatever reason, I don't think we are seeing the same thing.

Ronnoco

You are most likely right! I doubt that we see the same thing.

Apple monitors are usually set with a gamma value of 1,8 vs 2,2 for PC's so yes, PC images will usually display brighter on a Mac and the other way arround is equally true. That's an issue that bugged me in the past but my hardware has been calibrated with a gamma of 2,2 for a little while. From the few tests that I have done with PC's the level of luminosity that we both see shouldn't be that different nowaday.
Color saturation is another issue, I cannot evaluate how it compares. That's a sad situation because it makes serious pictures reviewing tricky.

regards

Seb

[readingr]

Seb,

I'm with you - My PC is hadware calibrated and the second edit of yours is what I was looking at. The only reason I wanted it slightly lighter is because of the House, otherwise your right darker would have been better.

However, now that I'm looking at the original in proper lighting I think the original was fine. Lesson learnt, don't view photos in bright sunshine.

I still wish there was a little more space on the left.

You can't win them all!

Roger

[gahspidy]

Seb, I find i like the original posted image here. The dialogue is interesting and the cross platform issues are true, but all that aside I find the strength of this picture is the dark shadowof shore and cliff curving bewtween the reflected water and sky. the hint of detail in the fron tof the hous on the cliff, and the way its peak cuts up through the hills gives an added visual. If we try to see details all the time, then we sacrifice the mood of the time of day that the dark brings to the viewer.

[Ronnoco]

If we try to see details all the time, then we sacrifice the mood of the time of day that the dark brings to the viewer.

I strongly disagree. You can get both, but that assumes that everyone is looking at the same level of brightness or darkness in the image.

Ronnoco

[starriderrick]

Seb,
Your final edit is quite pleasing.The mood remains intact :thumbsup:
With regards,
Rick

[Frog]

I like the original.

[gahspidy]

I strongly disagree. You can get both, but that assumes that everyone is looking at the same level of brightness or darkness in the image.

Ronnoco

Well, we can agree to disagree on that issue. I do also feel, as you , that there is a problem when it comes to viewing certain aspects of an image due to everyone having different set-ups, even though we may have calibrated gear and so forth. The cross platform issue remains a problem.
The edit you posted is pleasing to view, but it is an entirely different image than the one Seb posted originally. It lost the mysterious feel and abstract like quality of Sebs original, albeit it is a nice edit, it turned into a completely different image than I think Seb intended it to be. Do you know what I mean?