Southwold Seafront

Opinions and constructive critique welcomed. Specifically, is the underexposure in the sea on the left too much, would it be better for a bit of dodging in this area? Any other suggestions for improvement also considered. Remove the contrails or not?




Duncan

Yeah I find the exposure off here... underexposed not only in the sea but almost anywhere there isn't a giant sun.

The railing leads me out of the picture and is rather too much. I would have shot with the railing out of frame, but I'm not much of an expert. There is some nice detail in the sand.

Perhaps a portrait crop of just the left side of the image?

Personally, I would crop of the sun completely. That would balance out the horizon more. (rule of thirds)
Dodge the far left sea and lighten the foam and surf. (In PS use selection tool,feather a large amount and lighten with levels.)
And clone out that tiny flock of birds, above the fisherman. It looks like dirt. Finally add some grain to gain some extra mood.
This picture has a lot going for it. So see the above as minor improvements, Not as harsh critique
Martin.

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Thanks for the feedback folks, much appreciated.

This picture has almost a moonlight quality to it, which makes it stand out from other B&W pictures, gives it a bit of wow.

I would respectfully suggest dodging the left sea, burn in or as Malo suggests lose the sun, tweak the exposure a bit and for my money it's a "hang on the wall", if it were mine.

I think it is excellent as it is. Tremendous impact. I would leave the sea dark (more mysterious) and leave the sun in the shot.

G

I agree with evrything Martin says, but still a lovely shot.

I agree with George on this one, the dark sea does add some mystery. If you must lighten it don't overdo it!

Thanks for the continued interest. I've tried a variety of edits based on your input. Cropping out the sun completely really unbalances the composition to my eye, editing it to make it look smaller is very difficult without making it blindingly obvious that it's been edited, it simply doesn't look natural.

I tried adding grain as one of my very 1st edits before I ended up with this result. The grain kills the texture in the clouds and the bit of spindrift over the waves. The whole scene loses its 3D effect with grain, we're just going to have to agree to disagree on this suggestion, been there before, tried it, hated it.

Lightening up the sea improves things, but as xbow suggests, it's easy to overdo it. I could play around for ages with this and still not be entirely happy with it.

Thanks anyway for the suggestions. I'll keep trying.

Duncan