Co-Existance

[Irish]

This image is a series of images shot around the indistrial area of Wollongong, Austalia.

I liked the irony of the beautiful beach and environment agianst the ugly indstrial buildings and pollution coming form the smoke stacks..........Of course the insudtry is an economic necessity for people who live in the area........


INDUSTRY V ENVIRONMENT

[PuckJunkey]

You almost nailed it I would say.

What I might do next time (assuming you had the exact same scene), would be to swivel your camera to the right a bit so that there is less "empty space" to the left of the factories, which in turn would also capture a few more of those tracks. From there, I'd zoom in about 5mm or so. I think the idea of some random tracks leading towards the factory, fading out of focus in the sand, would be very cool. Like your other beach shot, the colors are great. Did you work the curves at all before posting it -- just curious....

[Irish]

You almost nailed it I would say.

What I might do next time (assuming you had the exact same scene), would be to swivel your camera to the right a bit so that there is less "empty space" to the left of the factories, which in turn would also capture a few more of those tracks. From there, I'd zoom in about 5mm or so. I think the idea of some random tracks leading towards the factory, fading out of focus in the sand, would be very cool. Like your other beach shot, the colors are great. Did you work the curves at all before posting it -- just curious....

Thanks for the comments and interest....I have to train myself to look more closely at the image in the view finder......before I press the button.

Like you I see aftewards the foot prints and the idea that the lead up the beach. I was concentrating on the waves and the smoke stakes in the background. Unfortunately I was on a work assignment and will most likely get back to that beach, but enjoyed the experience and learned an awful lot about early morning light.

Curves are something I am not familiar with. To date most of my colour manipulation has been limited to using levels, contrast and saturation. I am trying to limit pushing the colours too much.

Thanks again
Andy

[PuckJunkey]

Yah, I can understand wanting to avoid too much color manipulation. Essentially Levels and Curves do the same kinds of things, just in different ways. Curves are harder to learn but much more precise in the alterations they allow for. But you've obviously got a good sense for finding the "golden light" (which is 80% of photography IMO) and for seeing color contrast in a scene. The more you shoot under great lighting conditions, the less you'll need to do anything with Levels or Curves.

That said, I would strongly encourage you to never use "Brightness & Contrast" tools. It's a little like trying to make an ice sculpture with a sledge hammer instead of a small hammer and chisel. ;)

Hue & Saturation is best used as a way to shift a particular part of an image that has an unnatural color cast, or to make an already color-corrected image (via Levels or Curves) a little more punchy. At least, that's how we use it in the post-production studio I work for.

Meantime, looking forward to seeing more shots.

Cheers!
-PJ