Run over by a wave

[romelm]

My wife took this on a trip to the Washington coast. When the waves hit this spot there was an explosive burst. A few pictures later I was completely covered by water.....

I think I lost some of the sharpness when converting to add here.

Canon EOS Digital Rebel XT
TV 1/500s
Av 6.3F
18-55 mm kit lense
400 ISO

[MrEastSide]

Gotta upload the picture to actual web space. Or use the attachment tool in the posting options.

[swmdrayfan]

This is a nice capture, but it needs to be punched up a bit. You might want to play with the levels, bring out the highlights a bit more.
John

[MB1]

That is a great wave/shore interface pix but the person in the image doesn't do anything for me plus the whole image is too dark.

[Canuck935]

... A few pictures later I was completely covered by water.....

How's the camera?

[Sebastian]

Always the contrarian, I love the person in the photo. Reminds me of a knight with a tiny shield going up against the giant dragon.

The composition is great, the way the wave gently tilts up and leads us to the person.

You definitely need to tone it though. It's way too flat. Some sharpening would help too. Rather than repeat myself, I'll simply point you to this:

Digital Photography Sharpening Guide >>

[fx101]

Try the shadows/highlights tool and from there mess with the levels a bit. The moment is what makes this a great shot.

Edit: The other way around (thanks Sebastian ). Follow the subsequent post.

[Sebastian]

I'm pretty sure he'd want to do the levels first, and the shadow/highlight afterwards. Reason being that any tonal adjustments made before the white point and black point are set will be exaggerated by the levels adjustment. Plus, shadow and highlight adjustment is applied relative to the rest of the scene, therefore more basic adjustments need to be made beforehand.

Romelm, if it helps at all, here's what I'd do. You should be able to replicate these steps easily in almost any software that has levels adjustment, curves adjustment and a dodge/burn tool.

Also, let me know if you want me to remove these. Some people don't like having their images edited and reposted, I know cause I'm one of them. But I figured it would be most beneficial to you if I used your image instead of one of my own. If you are offended, I apologize and will promptly remove them at your request.

First, I set the black point. In Photoshop I open the Levels dialog and drag the left slider while holding down the ALT key to see where the black begins to lose detail.



I repeat the same thing for the right slider to set the white point.



I then use a curve adjustment to bring out the shadows a little bit. That line starts out straight. On the left it represents the shadows, and on the right, the highlights. I put a bump towards the left to boost the shadows a bit. The extra points on the right are to keep the mids and highlights where they are.



Finally, I add a little bit of saturation to the colors, but not too much.



I follow it all up with a little dodging of the guy holding the umbrella. I dodge the bright areas on him to give it a bit more contrast, and I dodge the bright areas to his left (water and spray) to make them a bit lighter and add more contrast against his pants and backpack.

Before and after:

[freygr]

My wife took this on a trip to the Washington coast. When the waves hit this spot there was an explosive burst. A few pictures later I was completely covered by water.....

I think I lost some of the sharpness when converting to add here.

Canon EOS Digital Rebel XT
TV 1/500s
Av 6.3F
18-55 mm kit lense
400 ISO

I was at Cape Perpetura, just south of Yachats, OR. Taking photos of the blow hole on a nice sunny warm day, but the sea was ruff. A group of people comes down the stairs and walks out on to the wet rocks toward the ocean. The next thing I hear are screams a wave had broke over them they were soaked. The water came up to were I was standing at the bottom of the stair way. Later I got a photo of the spouting horn at Depot Bay, but the sun came out and blow out the exposure. (I was using an Olympus C-3030)

[romelm]

Sebastian, no problem, I am not offended in the least. Actually, I am quite pleased and appreciative as this really helps my understanding of how to make a picture look better. The picture looks great after editing and I'll work on it more myself in the next fews when I actually am free from my dissertation. Thanks for your respones.

Freygr said : "A group of people comes down the stairs and walks out on to the wet rocks toward the ocean. The next thing I hear are screams a wave had broke over them they were soaked. "

Freygr, here is another picture from this series--I like how umbrella crunches under the water (it is not fixed yet so it still dark and the wave isn't impressive).

[CaraRose]

I agree with lightening and upping highlights a bit. I feel like the fellow needs to pop out a bit more color wise.

Overall though, I like the composure and I think the person adds quite a bit to the shot.

[Sebastian]

I'm glad to hear that.

Honestly, I think the second shot is much stronger than the first. The splash, the way it brings out the person, their body language and the way the water splashes over the collapsed umbrella make for a photo that communicates much more. The biggest plus is seeing the face, it creates a connection that the first one lacks.

[starriderrick]

Great composition.Sebastian,Thanks for taking time to help out.I'm learning about post work, this thread...was very helpful!

Thank you!

[Sebastian]

Any time Rick.