Off Season

[Carl in Louisiana]

Road around this morning looking for one of the older Shrimp Boats. Half a tank later I found this one and it will have to do until I can find what I had in mind. All comments are welcome as I need all the instruction I can get. Thank You!

[Donald]

Carl- First the suggestion to consider. I think it's maybe a bit tight in the frame. But that may be a decision you made that works for what you wanted. The rear is slipping out of the frame and the front is getting pretty hard up against the right hand edge of the frame.

But that apart - I think it's super. Your B & W conversion is good and the use of light works really well, in my opinion. I love the sky.

[jeeperman]

Carl, looks like a fun and challenging subject with the nets so prominant and the light being a bit harsh, think you did well with taming the light. With subjects such as this what I like to do is....if the subject can not be shot in full and unabstructed within the composition the I pick a portion of the lager image and go in tight making the most interesting bit my subject. One thing to keep watch of while in PP is the halos, likely cause be to much sharpening. You can see it here in the trees, on the lines and netting.

It's a good subject and I look forward to seeing more.

I really do need to learn to type faster. Looks like Donald beat me to it.

[Andrew1]

With that tight of a crop I imagine you are trying to eliminate something from the left side of your shot. If not, you might find a photo from your right, about 45 degrees to the boat, would give you a more complex result than a straight on profile. Another option is to find out when these boats head out and return. If it's during daylight you could get other interesting shots away from the dock/posts and with hands aboard. More environmental. A good tone range on the mono. I'd be tempted to push the exposure up a bit to lighten the boat. Blowing out the reflecting light on the watermight be worth it overall.

I do like the setting. A nice reward for the driving you did.

[Carl in Louisiana]

Carl- First the suggestion to consider. I think it's maybe a bit tight in the frame. But that may be a decision you made that works for what you wanted. The rear is slipping out of the frame and the front is getting pretty hard up against the right hand edge of the frame.

But that apart - I think it's super. Your B & W conversion is good and the use of light works really well, in my opinion. I love the sky.

Thank You Donald! I am honored that you think it is okay! The reason for it being tight is a light pole leaning very badly and an old shed in the rear and the front would have looked funny with more room out front at least I thought it would. If I would have gone to the other side the light would have been wrong for me plus another shed would have been behind the boat.
I did want to lighten up the boat but could not do so without lightening up the shy with the light in it. If someone knows how to do that I would like to know. I have lightroom 3 and Nik Silver Efex Pro2 (trial).
Shrimp season will bring them out of the slips and into open water and I will catch them then and just maybe one of the much older boat as the look so cool to me.

[Carl in Louisiana]

Carl, looks like a fun and challenging subject with the nets so prominant and the light being a bit harsh, think you did well with taming the light. With subjects such as this what I like to do is....if the subject can not be shot in full and unabstructed within the composition the I pick a portion of the lager image and go in tight making the most interesting bit my subject. One thing to keep watch of while in PP is the halos, likely cause be to much sharpening. You can see it here in the trees, on the lines and netting.

It's a good subject and I look forward to seeing more.

I really do need to learn to type faster. Looks like Donald beat me to it.

Thanks Paul! I was out much earlier but all the boats I saw was on the wrong side of the canal with no road on the other side. I know it was getting a little late in the morning and the sun was getting high, but we have had so much rain and I wanted to try out the new lens so bad, it came in yesterday, that I shot it anyway and figured that at the least I could get some practice in. I had to zoom in on the image to see what you were talking about but see it now, thanks for letting me know now I will zoom in and check before posting on the next one. Will try on this one now though.

[Carl in Louisiana]

Thanks Andrew! I tried bought ways and like the water better than the boat, I guess it should have been the other way around. When shrimp season opens I will have plenty of opportunity to catch them out of the slips. It was kind of a one way shot, too much other junk around from other directions.

[Carl in Louisiana]

Okay I did a little more to it and hope this works better. I tried not sharpening on export to see if that would help.

[Donald]

I have lightroom 3 and Nik Silver Efex Pro2 (trial)

I have no personal interest in promoting SEP2, but if you wish to get serious about producing B & W images and you can afford it, I would very much encourage you to purchase the product. It is an amazingly powerful tool that offers so many options for the production of B & W images.

[Carl in Louisiana]

I have no personal interest in promoting SEP2, but if you wish to get serious about producing B & W images and you can afford it, I would very much encourage you to purchase the product. It is an amazingly powerful tool that offers so many options for the production of B & W images.

Thanks Donald, I do want to get into B & W, I just think they are awesome, I have the Nik Complete on my wish list and will pick it up on Tuesday of next week. Some color images look better in color too. I have seen your work with B & W and will be looking to you for all the guidance you will be willing to give.