River meets Ocean part 2

[GEORDIE]

A result of a wander to a new spot . The title tells the story.
C&C please.

Cheers Colin.

[Dave Humphries]

I like it Colin, but it lacks punch.

I would try some Local Contrast Enhancement on this ('sharpen' with USM 15%, 150px, 0 threshold), then downsize it yourself* to 1500px wide, then sharpen at 80%, 0.3px, 1 threshold, all before uploading to TinyPic.

* I can tell from the width of 1599px that you (almost certainly) uploaded this bigger than 1600px and it got automatically downsized by TinyPic (missing out the final sharpen stage) - which means we're just not getting the best of the scene.

I think you have it nice and level, but I wonder if there is some uncorrected barrel distortion from the lens?
Not sure if your PP software has the ability to apply a lens profile auto correction for this - this is one of the things I love about CS5 and RAW shooting. Failing that, a plugin called PT Lens may also be of help, I have it, but don't need it, haven't used it, much.

Cheers,

[GEORDIE]

Thank you for taking the time to help.

I have PSE7 which I am still learning so I don't think I have the ability to utilize all of your advice or even if PSE7 can do those things. I have only just started to shoot RAW and don't know the correct size for uploading to Tinypics What is barrel distortion
please?

Cheers Colin

[rpcrowe]

Colin, lovely area. I like the shot but, I would have liked to see a little less on the left side and inclusion of the end of the sand spit on the right side of the image.

Barrel distortion is when the center of the edges of an image are stretched and rounded to the outside of the image. Just like a round wooden barrel.

On the other side of distortion is pincushion distortion when the centers of the edges of the image are compressed inward.

The amount of this distortion is dependent on the lens. I have not used PSE-7 but, I have used PSE-8 in the past and you can correct much distortion using this program.

Be in edit mode
Click filter
Select correct camera distortion Camera distortion window opens...
Click the Remove Distortion slider and move it to left or right to correct curved horizon or vertical lines - use grid to help
Correct any crooked horizons by clicking the Angle icon and dragging the pointer
Adjust the Edge Extension slider until edges are solid with no gaps.
When the photo is corrected, click O.K.



By the way... I also played with the contrast a bit and cropped out the bit of land in the bottom right corner of the image.

There are editing programs which can automatically correct for the distortion caused by different lenses simply by clicking onto the lens used in a drop down menu.

Note: Perspective distortion is a different animal altogether and is most often caused when tilting the camera up to shoot a tall building (especially with a wide angle lens). The building seems to get more narrow towards its top. This is also called Keystone Effect and is corrected differently.

[GEORDIE]

Thank you Richard for your very clear and helpful comments As a lost soul in a sea of photography I need and appreciate all the help I can get.

Colin