Apolo bay. After storm

[-=Monty=-]

What do you guys think?

This was after the big storm that flooded Geelong back in december last year.

EDIT:
Here is a better picture:

[Glen]

Monty, that is a nice shot. Tad underexposed for my liking, but that adds to the stormy feel

[gstark]

Monty,

What sort of PP have you employed in this? As Glen says, it looks a bit underexposed or dark; I'd like to see this worked on a little more to bring out some more of the shadow detail, but while still keeping the wonderful moody, stormy feel that you've captured.

[sirhc55]

Lovely shot Monty - although I agree to a certain extent with Glen and Gary I would tend to crop the bottom out to make it more of a panorama look and just a tad of lightning up

[genji]

try bracketing your landscapes, see my Mt Buller photos, both r bracketed shots and blended togather

[stormygirl]

Great photo, Monty. I'd actually have to agree with everyone else here!

As I was looking at it, and before I read the other posts, my initial thought was that it is a little dark, particually in the foreground, then I thought cropping would be good EXACTLY as Chris has said. Go with a more panoramic feel to it, and lighten it and you will improve an already fabulous shot!

If I knew how to do it, I'd have a go to show you what I mean....but I don't! Well done, and love that sky!

[mudder]

I love stormy skies, especially over water (for some strange reason ), I think Chris had a good idea, crop the extreme top and some of the lower foreground, bring up some of the shadow detail especially on the shore and town details and it'd be a pearler...

Cheers..

[darb]

dont be afraid of the dark! ... but i agree on cropping out the foreground, and going a pano aspect ratio.

FWIW, a pano of apollo bay i did on top of that big hill

[kipper]

Slight adjustments to shadows and midtones to bring out more detail.
Colors are a bit unnatural after the adjustment as I brought the greens and blues up. However I feel it gives it more of a painted feel.

[sirhc55]

Sorry kipper but I think you have gone too far and lost the asthetic appeal of the original IMO

[darb]

stick with the orignial

[MHD]

yes... use the curve of the beach to frame the shot, ie crop just under where the beach leaves the RHS

[PiroStitch]

Not sure what it is, but the darkness of the photo doesn't do it for me. I'm all for dark photos but not this time

Did you use a filter of some sort or pp in p/shop to get the brown clouds or were they just that colour as it looks like you used one of those champagne gradient filters.

IMHO, crop it and lose the wooden beams in the foreground and bring out brightness a bit more. Could be interesting as a B&W or B&W with a few colours left in for effect.

[-=Monty=-]

Well, i found a better pic.

[sirhc55]

Monty - if you are 13 as you say I must say that in the years to come you will produce some amazing pics.

Your second pic has a better light balance IMO but the people spoil the isolationist effect of the first.

[-=Monty=-]

The one without the people doesn't work nicely as a pano.

But here is an improved version of it:


And yes, i really am 13 (turning 14 end of may)

[Killakoala]

I think it's great. I love the 'oil painting' style of look it has.

Well done Monty.

[kipper]

Sorry, Chris. The last picture by Monty is what about how I had it at work. Hence why I said it looks like a painted picture. However my monitor isn't calibrated as well as my home monitor, also Adobe colorspaces aren't setup properly. I'm looking at what I did at work from my home PC and I'm like "urgh, just looks like a normal photo of a beach".

[sirhc55]

Monty - the last photo posted is just beautiful - I feel no need to critique this as you have done a wonderful job

[stormygirl]

WOW Monty... this is fantastic! I LOVE the colours! So you really are 13? You have a wonderful talent for someone so young. Enjoy it....you have your whole life ahead of you to do so! Brilliant picture! Wish I could've done that when I was 13!!

[sirhc55]

The camera had not been invented when I was 13

[dooda]

I must say it is very cool to have a 13 yr old on the forum.

You pretty much have this pic dialed. The lighter look brings out the color better. There are just a few details, I hope you don't mind.

There is a vignette in the bottom right hand corner that is just slightly distracting. I generally try and clone those out. Also, there is a line where you selected the hills on the right side between the hills and the clouds. I don't even know how you get rid of that, but I'm pretty sure someone here knows how. Might have to do with feathering the pixels, or might selecting quick mask, then selecting the area and adding a gausion blur or something. Anyways I look forward to hearing how you blend that line in.

[-=Monty=-]

I did some more things. How does this look?

[dooda]

You are very good. I wish I had started at 13 with your talent. You will definitly go far. The line on the hills is gone, what did you do to get rid of it? I just remembered what I used to do was clone it out. Is that what you did here? You did a good job.

[-=Monty=-]

You are very good. I wish I had started at 13 with your talent. You will definitly go far. The line on the hills is gone, what did you do to get rid of it? I just remembered what I used to do was clone it out. Is that what you did here? You did a good job.

Well, i selected the sky and not the ground with the magic wand then clicked on invert selection and then used the paintbrush that was set to darken and hardness 0 to darken the right hand area a tiny bit. Also the opacity was like 4%. It took a while to get it to look nice.

The only problem i personally have with this photo is the noise in the large file. It was taken at ISO 600 or somthing. BTW, thanks for all the replies and advice.