Critique wanted Durdle Door V1

[Jack]

Location

Europe

Camera type

DSLR camera

Camera sensor

APS-C (Crop)

EXIF

Canon 7D M2
Canon 24-70mm f2.8 L II

Long exposure I took on my trip. Took me a while to remove all people from the beach

First version

 

[Peter Korevaar]

A nice subject but the horizon is skewed. For this photo has way too much HDR effect. But that's taste...

 

[Jack]

A nice subject but the horizon is skewed. For this photo has way too much HDR effect. But that's taste...

Thanks P Peter Korevaar , personally I like lots of saturation and colours on my images. I know you right about too much, but the colours does bring the photo to life.

 

[Peter Korevaar]

Of course, up the you. 👍🏼😀

 

[Jack]

Of course, up the you. 👍🏼😀

You’d probably notice that pretty much all my images are a bit over saturated

 

[Guest 183]

I produced an earlier critique of this image that I have deleted not because I thought that it was wrong but because I was critiquing the style of the photographer. Yes to my eyes it is oversaturated but that is opinion and the authors opinions are always the most important. A few factual things, the horizon is tilted (easily felt with), large and noticeable halos around the skyline, both lighter halos in the sky (easily felt with) and darker halos under the skyline (much harder to fix). The halos are the consequence of the processing style. My main concern however stems from the nature of the final image. This is obviously a beautiful calm day in Dorset with almost no waves and pleasant sunshine. I should be looking at and exploring the lovely sparkle on the water and the slight curving surf leading my eye to the lovely arch. Instead my eyes are grabbed by the sky which is totally at odds with the rest of the scene. The bottom half says gentle seascape, the sky screams Apocalypse. This a sky full of Cirrus clouds, the whitest clouds in the sky, they are delicate wispy but not in this image. If the image was full of drama with stormy seas battering in then the sky may well fit in but not here. Photographers need a range of processing styles to get the best out of the wide variety of conditions that they come across. Ken

 

[Jack]

Thanks for the feedback Ken G Gloomy1 . That's totally fine, everyone's style is different, personally I prefer colourful images.

Regarding the sky, is because I had increased probably too much the sky dehaze in Lightroom, that's why is so much blue and looks a bit weird.


Maybe I should change the entire skye with different one 🤔. Maybe will look better.

The image probably feels tilted because I took the image at 24mm.

 

[Guest 183]

The horizon is tilted. The focal length doesn't change that

 

[ruedas]

I must say I have never seen Durdle Door look like that! Nice composition and a lot of patience was needed I am sure.

 

[Jack]

I must say I have never seen Durdle Door look like that! Nice composition and a lot of patience was needed I am sure.

Thanks a lot. I had a bit of work to remove all them people from beach.

 

[ruedas]

The horizon is tilted. The focal length doesn't change that

I tilted it 1 degree clockwise, this was the only degree/direction in which it did not look wrong

 

[panos_adgr]

The horizon in the first photo is straight!
I downloaded the image and loaded it in ACR and viewed it with the grid overlay. There is a slight tilt of 0.1 degree which is unnoticeable.
You are clearly deceived by the angle of the sand from the hills to the sea.

As for the critique we have to have always in mind the following things before we critique somebody's photo and in this case jacks.

1. Personal Perception
2. Artist's Personal Point Of View
3. Artist's Artistic approach and interpretation of the scene he/she captures
4. We were ALL absent at the time of shooting.
5. Artistic critique must me made as less subjectively as possible. There is no point in critique of kind, ''I would do this or that'' or critiquing somebody's effort / work in our personal view like It looks too much like this or that. Go and get the photo for yourself as you want to capture it....

We have to try to understand the artist's pov.
Jack had a wonderful landscape in front of him with nice bright light and he wanted as he said to saturate more the photo. This is usually what most of the people try to do when they look at a beautiful scene, feeling amazed with positive feelings and try to represent it in a photo. The most mainstream way is colour saturation.

I like very much Jacks approach and effort to express what, at least I as a viewer, perceive from his work.

The only comments I would do with respect to his effort, are;
A lower horizon that would make the sand /sea point to reach the low right angle would probably work better with sand (being part of the negative space) to attract less viewer attention.
The use of Curves might give a better result in contrast than the most aggressive dehaze or similar tools of other apps.

The above comments are my own point of view and only.

Nice work Jack

 

[Snook911]

Long exposure I took on my trip. Took me a while to remove all people from the beach

First version

View attachment 600

Very Nice Photo. I like a lot of saturation as well but the sky has bit too much for me. I little less blue on the sky and it would be perfect…. to me. Of course to each his own.

 

[Jack]

Very Nice Photo. I like a lot of saturation as well but the sky has bit too much for me. I little less blue on the sky and it would be perfect…. to me. Of course to each his own.

I must agree regarding the sky. Too much blue, probably I added too much dehaze to the photo. Thanks for your reply.

 

[ruedas]

The horizon in the first photo is straight!
I downloaded the image and loaded it in ACR and viewed it with the grid overlay. There is a slight tilt of 0.1 degree which is unnoticeable.
You are clearly deceived by the angle of the sand from the hills to the sea.

As for the critique we have to have always in mind the following things before we critique somebody's photo and in this case jacks.

1. Personal Perception
2. Artist's Personal Point Of View
3. Artist's Artistic approach and interpretation of the scene he/she captures
4. We were ALL absent at the time of shooting.
5. Artistic critique must me made as less subjectively as possible. There is no point in critique of kind, ''I would do this or that'' or critiquing somebody's effort / work in our personal view like It looks too much like this or that. Go and get the photo for yourself as you want to capture it....

We have to try to understand the artist's pov.
Jack had a wonderful landscape in front of him with nice bright light and he wanted as he said to saturate more the photo. This is usually what most of the people try to do when they look at a beautiful scene, feeling amazed with positive feelings and try to represent it in a photo. The most mainstream way is colour saturation.

I like very much Jacks approach and effort to express what, at least I as a viewer, perceive from his work.

The only comments I would do with respect to his effort, are;
A lower horizon that would make the sand /sea point to reach the low right angle would probably work better with sand (being part of the negative space) to attract less viewer attention.
The use of Curves might give a better result in contrast than the most aggressive dehaze or similar tools of other apps.

The above comments are my own point of view and only.

Nice work Jack

I agree Panos, as I said I was able to tilt it a tiny amount without it looking off kilter so for me the shot is straight..