DSLRUsers.com

I was disappointed with some shots I took recently of Leeuwin Lighthouse in the late afternoon. This one was exposed for the bright sky to the right of the lighthouse (JPG out of the camera, straightened but no other adjustments).



I've desaturated it and fiddled with the contrast.



Hasn't given me the moody look I was looking for, so any help appreciated.

There are some more shots here, all pretty disappointing I'm afraid (also looks like MobileMe Gallery softens them a bit in slideshow or full size mode). I'd like to go back sometime and have another go, so any advice appreciated.

Cheers, Muzz

While I like how you've managed to keep some foreground detail in this image, crop most of the foreground out.

Just below the base of the lighthouse you will see a black line as the terrain changes. Use this as the bottom limit for this image, and crop at that point. This will prevent the foreground from becoming a competing (for one's attention) element in the image, allowing the eye to better see the sun's rays.

Might be tricky if you have blown the details on the clouds in a JPEG. you may have been able to get some detail if it was RAW but even then it may have been tricky.

Adding grain to the BW image and making it look like a vintage shot may work....

Thanks for your feedback with this.

gstark wrote:While I like how you've managed to keep some foreground detail in this image, crop most of the foreground out.

For some reason I have been "locked in" to standard ratios when cropping (i.e. 6x4, 5x7 etc). I think I'll go back through all of those lighthouse shots as some may work better with a non-standard crop than this one.

Cheers, Murray

even a square crop would work well

[/quote]
For some reason I have been "locked in" to standard ratios when cropping (i.e. 6x4, 5x7 etc). I think I'll go back through all of those lighthouse shots as some may work better with a non-standard crop than this one.

Cheers, Murray[/quote]

...... how ?........ top left cornor of photoshop>click on down arrow>select current tool only......

hope this is what you ment?

big pix wrote:
...... how ?........ top left cornor of photoshop>click on down arrow>select current tool only......

hope this is what you ment?

Thanks big pix for your reply. I was referring to my mindset actually. I was mainly thinking about standard presentation sizes (paper sizes) and not looking at panoramic options, or squares as jdear pointed out.

Cheers, Murray