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Chinaman's Beach

Image Doctor: Chinaman's Beach at Dawn

Photographer: Jake Randle

Added: 08-Jul-12

Camera Type: Canon EOS 450D

Lens: EFS 18-55mm

Shutter Speed: 1/5 second

Aperture: f/11

Adjustments: Auto adjustments to tone, contrast, and colour in CS5. Minor croping.

Photographer's Comments: This photo was taken at Chinaman's Beach, Evans Head over the June long weekend this year. I was trying to put in to practice some of the skills I'd read about concerning sunrise photography, however I think the distinct lack of readily available sunlight may have had a negative impact on this image.

Image doctor's advice

Hi Jake,

As I look at this image I can only really notice one thing… blue… a really dark and intense blue.

Now some days blue can be really beautiful… particularly if you are a Carlton supporter (although maybe not this season) or if you are a smurf. The problem with this image though is that the blue is just too strong and distracting. You see the sky and for some reason you forget to look at the rest of the picture.

You could desaturate the sky but an even better solution would be to get rid of all the colour in this image and turn it into a black and white.

In the image below I have used Nik Software's Silver Efex Pro to convert the image to black and white, drop in a hint of toning and add a slight vignette. I then used a couple of control points to darken the lower left of the picture and add some contrast to the rocks and the bush.

All of a sudden we have a far more integrated picture, with the sky and the beach working in harmony with each other.

 

Image Doctor's edited version

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