Rock moss on the shore

[thekidsr1]

This image was taken at ISO 100 f/20 - 1/6 sec at 85mm. I took a drive early this morning to the shore to see what I could get. This was taken around 6:30am

Please let me know your thoughts.

[gahspidy]

This is not bad. A good subject with nice lighting. The composition at first look gave me the impression that the large rock in the fg was filling up too much space and over bearing, but after looking for a while longer it seems to work for me. Your camera angle tilting so that the green rock sits in the lower right corner while the small rocks and water in the bg sits up in the upper left looks like a good idea. The color is good as well. It does look as though the focus is soft, but that might be a "sharpening for the web" issue. Did you use a tripod here? Your shutter speed was slow as to make hand holding this a risky go.

[thekidsr1]

Thanks Gary. I did use a tripod here with the slow shutter speed. I think you're right about the soft focus in the background though...maybe i should have stopped down farther to get the bg rocks in focus more.

Matt

[gahspidy]

Thanks Gary. I did use a tripod here with the slow shutter speed. I think you're right about the soft focus in the background though...maybe i should have stopped down farther to get the bg rocks in focus more.

Matt

Matt, I did not mean that the distant rocks look too soft. The dof is fine and you were already stopped down quite alot. I meant the large rock which you focused on seemed a bit soft in sharpness, but I think it may be more of a issue of sharpening your image for web presentation.

[thekidsr1]

Ahhh, gotcha. The image is actually not sharpened at all off the camera, I just resized it for the web. I'll have to remember that for next time when i resize!

[romelm]

I really like the coloring on this -- especially the striking green on the moss, but the gentle pinkish-white in the water in the background. I'm a beginner and would like to get similar coloring -- did you photoshop? Any suggestions?

[thekidsr1]

Thanks for your comments romelm. My secret to warm colors and saturation is capturing the images about a half hour after sunrise and a little before sunset. The low angle light also shows off the detail in objects like the rocks. I also use a circular polarizer pretty often to take glare away and saturate the colors more (sky especially).

The answer to the Photoshop question is yes, I did use it. The color was saturated a hint more with the channel mixer to come closer to Velvia film which I love the look of, but was pretty saturated already with that early morning sun. I also cropped a bit off to get a 4x5 ratio, but other than that, it is pretty much the exposure off the camera. I'm a big fan of not doing extensive Photoshop work on images, and instead using careful setup of framing, lighing (time of day), and exposure.