Hey fellows,

I took this photo years ago, when I was more a black and white photographer than today. I still take photos in b&w because I think it helps me concentrating on the composition. But if colors contribute to the mood or theme, I may recover them from my RAW files. Here I went for a cool attitude, I'm not sure less would be more, without going back to black and white. I'm curious what you think - and what else you see that I do not see yet.

It's a classic ISO 100 / F/16 / 70mm / 30sec Exposure / D750, 70-200mm f/2.8 lens

Cheers,

Mike

Mike, 

Thanks for trying out the Critique section, and thanks also for including the exposure settings that help us understand how the image was made.  You got a nice effect for the smooth water with the 30 second exposure.  I'm sure you're aware that a small aperture like f/16 will take away a bit of sharpness because of diffraction.  Of course it's a very small amount, and with a lens as good as a Nikon 70-200, probably negligible.  It was likely a necessary compromise to allow the 30 second exposure. 

The rock is a gift for photographers (and seagulls, I suppose).  The two triangular shapes and the leading line of rock at the bottom left make a dramatic composition. 

I'm sure it looks good in black and white, but the cool blue mood works too.  As the artist, you edit for the theme and mood you want the photo to express.  If it were mine to edit, I would try de-saturating the colour by about half (minus 50 in Photoshop's 'Image>Adjustments>Hue/Saturation').  The vignetting is quite strong and could be reduced, and some Texture and Clarity could be added to the rock, leaving the sky and sea soft as they are to exaggerate the contrast between those two elements. 

Just suggestions, of course.  Thanks again for sharing the photograph with us here. 

Steven, senior critic

PS:  I should have asked your permission to edit the screenshot, but since we're on the same team here I'm sure you would have said 'OK'.  :-)

Hi Steven,

Thank you very much for taking the time. Seems providing an example of what we mean became a lot easier. 

Actually I had a previous version in portfolio matching your preferences more: https://gallery.1x.com/photo/2089643/all:user:248636

But in the "new 1x" there is no way of seeing it unless it was published - stupid.

And I did not get a notification you wrote to my critique request - which we had in classic 1x. So worth the experiment, I'd say :-)

Cheers!

Mike

I will surely fix the notification 😁

/ Jacob