<<< o >>>down to the sea #4 4 comments + add yours
chromasia.com

Here's another shot taken during my recent trip to the UK, and beyond that I guess I don't have too much to say about this one, at least not in terms of the image itself.

One thing that is worth mentioning though ...

As you can see from the original, this was shot on a dull flat day. In many ways, particularly in terms of post-production, I prefer flat light – an image with a reasonably restricted tonal range is often much easier to edit than one with harsh shadows and highlights. The downside of shooting in these conditions though is that the sky is often a uniform shade of grey, or subtle variations thereof. In these circumstances there isn't a lot you can do, i.e. you can try increasing the contrast, but if the sky is very dull this just results in all of it getting brighter or all of it getting darker: there's just no detail to bring out. In these circumstances toning an image (as described in my Toning Colour Images tutorial) can be a useful solution, i.e. rather than having some interesting detail in the foreground, offset against a grey nothingness in the background, the toning unifies the image, tying the foreground to the background.

captured
camera
lens
focal length
aperture
shutter speed
shooting mode
exposure bias
metering mode
ISO
flash
image quality
RAW converter
plugins (etc)
cropped?
11.55am on 10/9/10
Canon 5D Mark II
EF 24-70mm f/2.8L USM
50mm
f/5.6
1/320
aperture priority
+2/3
evaluative
100
no
RAW
ACR
Topaz Detail
minor transformation
 
3x2 + fylde coast [scenic] + show the original
comment by Carlos Garcia at 11:24 AM (GMT) on 21 September, 2010

The ocean was busy the day you caught this image. So nice. Great tones.

comment by Ambrose Thompson at 11:44 AM (GMT) on 21 September, 2010

Thank you for always showing the original. It is quite insightful.

comment by Dan Kaufman at 01:11 PM (GMT) on 21 September, 2010

love the toning. so well put in your comment re the flat sky. The sepia really brings out the chunky sea and ties it in with the wooden break.

(and congrats on fixing the Remember Info for Google Chrome Mac !!)

comment by djn1 at 07:36 AM (GMT) on 22 September, 2010

Thanks everyone.

Dan: I didn't do anything, but I'm glad it's working now.