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Fisherman at Dawn — Red River Beach
Fisherman at Dawn — Red River Beach
Bear_Music


Photograph Information Photographer's Comments
Challenge: Silhouettes II (Advanced Editing IV)
Collection: Challenges
Camera: Nikon Coolpix 5700
Location: Harwich Port, MA, USA
Date: May 14, 2005
Aperture: f:7.0
ISO: 100
Shutter: 1/500
Date Uploaded: May 14, 2005

 A fairly complex project, this. The dawn was not that colorful, although the luminosity was there. Allt he colors were present (nothing is completely artificial) but they were very subdued. The image was split into sky and foreground with selections, and each was worked on separately.

First I used a touch of Neat Image to smooth it out a bit, there was a little bit of noise.

Next I loaded the sky selectiona nd worked with levels and selective color to enhance the color that was already there, to clarify and intensify it. Then I laid down a gradient mask-to-transparency on the top 1/3 of the sky and faded it to bring a little more density to the very top.

Moving on to the foreground, I used similar steps to work on that, but no need for a gradient. Particular care was made in usiong selective color to bring the water (which was more blue/cyan in the original) into a better (but still subdued) reflection of the enhanced sky colors. History brush was used in lower left foreground to clean that area up a bit after all this.

Finally I used a home-brew version of gothic glow (alternating gaussian blur, sharpening, hue/saturation and high pass) to give the image more clarity and pop.

In the original the horizon has some barely discernible (3 pixels high at this size), jagged bluffs making a dark line across the entire horizon; this line looked like a bad burn overlap, so I cloned it out. There was a very tiny gull silhouetted above the fisherman and I cloned that out also, it was looking more like a dust speck than a bird.

Resize, final sharpening, borders and save to web.

Statistics
Place: 18 out of 248
Avg (all users): 6.7106
Avg (commenters): 7.8824
Avg (participants): 6.4870
Avg (non-participants): 6.9250
Views since voting: 2609
Views during voting: 320
Votes: 235
Comments: 27
Favorites: 7 (view)

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AuthorThread
 06/04/2014 04:46:47 PM
Oh I'd hang this on my wall!!!
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 06/04/2014 10:44:11 AM
Very nice silhouette and great Rule of Thirds.
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 09/12/2007 12:31:00 AM
wow never seen this one before, really interesting study. has great layers of texture.
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 05/23/2005 02:48:10 AM
nicely done - and well edited. i don't mind the white area at the top.
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 05/23/2005 01:28:08 AM
very nicely done. I gave you an 8.
well done.
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 05/22/2005 10:47:00 PM
Excellent shot, bear. I gave it a 7. If I wasn't too busy goofing off to leave a comment, it would've been to crop the top a little bit to remove that sliver of bright sky.

Congrats on a top 20!
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 05/22/2005 10:30:24 PM
Finished about where it should have, IMO. Lotta fine shots in this challenge. I predicted my second or third best score ever and an out-of-top-10 finish, and I was right about that :-)
 05/22/2005 10:00:28 PM
Hey Rob' I never had chance to vote this challenge but if I had ,this is placed 5 steps higher with me, how do you figure this set of critiques at DPC.
Congratulations.
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 05/22/2005 08:59:21 PM
Hey Robt. happy to see you here again. Congratulations on your top 20 with this lone fisherman.
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 05/22/2005 08:32:15 PM
Congratulations on a nice shot, Robt. Way to go.
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 Comments Made During the Challenge
05/22/2005 06:55:08 PM
Breathtaking, great use of 3rds in this shot. Almost looks like an advertisment for fising, OK I'm sold I need to go fishing. Just excellent work!
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 05/22/2005 03:52:06 AM
Nice shot and colors
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 05/20/2005 07:23:53 PM
Very, very nice colors
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 05/20/2005 07:24:36 AM
Simpe and effective compsition. Great Shot. Love the colours of the sky and reflection in the water. Hope to see this in the top 20. Well done and Good Luck.
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 05/19/2005 01:30:15 PM
Beautifully colours though the strange texture in the water nearer the horizon is somewhat strange. Like the way you have blue, orange, blue, orange from top to bottom. Good composition. Not sure what the red-orange blob is towards the end of the peninsula on which the fisherman is standing? Although the white at top right is interesting I do think it unbalances overall composition a bit. Nice image though!
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 05/19/2005 08:38:30 AM
Great colors and nice silhoutte.
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 05/19/2005 06:40:42 AM
Like this a lot. Minor critique: the bright spot at the end of the jetty is a bit of a distraction. (8)
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 05/19/2005 06:22:42 AM
I'm not sure if it would have been possible... depending on limits of your camera (dslr/p&s and megs) but I think this photo could have been just as effective with the colors and background, and more effective with your silhouette if you had zoomed in some (or cropped)Pretty though.
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 05/18/2005 07:19:22 PM
Wow, excellent composition and colors. 8
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 05/18/2005 06:28:33 PM
nice mood and sentiment. I like the composition and angling, particularly that the waterline is higher than the head of the figure. The image might be more dramatic with a horizontal, rather than vertical crop, imho.
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 05/17/2005 05:42:36 PM
Beautiful colors and great silhouette! A bit tighter zoom on the subject would be interesting to see as well, but I really like the composition of this photo the way it is.
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 05/17/2005 01:18:52 PM
This is an incredible photo! I love the minimalistic feel to the silhouette. It's just the perfect enhancement to that aMAZING sunset and ocean. This would get a 20 from me if we had it :)
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 05/17/2005 05:28:41 AM
My only question is: 1/ how would this have worked if the fisherman had been used to connect the sea with the sky? I'm not fond of this border. Otherwise, a lovely image. 8
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 05/16/2005 03:45:50 PM
This is cool. Very brilliant colors. Kind of a weird transition from water to sky, tho. Maybe a result of too much contrast or saturation (or both).
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 05/16/2005 02:03:42 PM
wonderful shot--good luck
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 05/16/2005 01:31:40 PM
What an incredibly sharp horizon! the colors are beautiful. Maybe it would look better with a tighter crop at the top, but then you would lose the cool white bit... Only other (slight) problem is the lack of details in the sea, is it too much neatimage? Still an 8
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 05/16/2005 12:13:00 PM
Lovely tranquil picture. I wonder if you tried a lower camera angle? It would be nice to see the angler against the sky.
  Photographer found comment helpful.


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