All That Glitters

Whitsand Bay in South East Cornwall UK. Thanks for looking.

Rgds

Paul

Hi Paul, beautiful place, and wonderful photo. I am also very glad I found your amazing portfolio thanks to this photo critique request. Congrats, Loic

Outstanding work, Paul!!!

Wonderful colours and light... ;-)

Lovely shot. Congrats!

7/7

Hello Paul

I must say I don't quite share other peoples' delight here

Let's however start with some good points :)

First of all - really nice perspective

Simple but effective composition and very nice light captured on those rocks.

Now - the bad part :

I think you've exaggerated with post-processing here quite heavily. I don't mean general exposure (it's spot on) but something is wrong with the colours reproduction here. The sky looks really weird (I have never seen such a strange tones in my life). Second thing is water - it has also lost it's natural blue hue and looks more like crude oil.

I'm not sure if that's intensional or not, but I simply don't like the final result.

Cheers, Piotr

Hi Piotr,

Thanks for backing up, and giving a reason for your low scoring (too many cowards on here not prepared to - or able to do that!

Now to explain the colours - I had taken a lot of photos this night, and all were extremely blue (some of which you will find in my PF) So I went for a mono conversion which looked OK, then I overlaid the mono over the colour version and lowered the opacity to let some of the original colour come through. This is a technique that I have done on many occasions and several of which have won awards. I appreciate it may not be to everyones taste, but I like it :-)

I have never set out to record a scene exactly as I saw it - I always go for drama and mood, and that is what I have done here.

Hope this explains the colour issue, and thanks for your honest opinion.

All the best

Paul

Hi again Paul

Thanks for your explanation.

Now I understand some reasons for choosing this conversion and I also appreciate your calm way of accepting critiques. Some people get really steamed up when receiving rates that are lower than usual :)

I also like to play a bit with different conversion methods, but it's more about toning the B/W photo than mixing it up with colour.

This example in particular is probably not my cup of tea, but I really like the composition :)

Why don't you try some splitt-toning here ?

It could be a killer shot :)

This one or my favourite from yours -> http://photo.net/photodb/photo?photo_id=7008396

Anyway - keep your photos coming.

Cheers

Piotr

Hello Paul,
I have just discovered your portfolio today.  You do some excellent work!  I love the processing in this photo.  The combination of monochrome and color works amazingly well in this composition.  

I do have a question if you do not mind helping a novice.  I notice that in a lot of your shots containing water, you use a very slow exposure; however, the sky and other details are never blow out.  I do not see any hints of HDR work, so I am assuming that you are using a different exposure blending technique.  Would you mind sharing some details about your process?  Thanks!