Determination

[Dave Humphries]

1/1000s @ f8, ISO400 at 250mm using Nikon D5000 plus Sigma 18-250mm.

I shot literally hundreds of photos of this event, expecting a high attrition rate - I was not disaapointed.
Not many images have anything special to 'say' as photographs.

I liked the framing and angles of the other swimmer's arms surrounding this chap.

Does it work for you?
I nearly sub-titled this "You can see it in his eyes", but I hope it is unnecessary (i.e. the determination is obvious).

Comments and suggestions welcome.
Thanks for taking the time,

[dan88]

Hi Dave,

The swimmer in the centre definitely is framed well by the arms of the surrounding swimmers. The photo really does spell determination. I believe the way his mouth is poised also shows how much the swim seems to be pushing him to his limits. Not sure if that makes sense and I may just be repeating what you said but I thought it was worth commenting.

Can the water be slightly modified to be bluer? Not sure if this would kill the image, but I am a fan of very blue water (obviously darkened in this image due to how deep the water was, I'm guessing)

Your lens seem to very sharp at the long end but I believe there is a bit of chromatic aberration on the swimmer to the right's hand. Could this possibly be slightly corrected with PP?

Just my thoughts though.

[Dave Humphries]

Your lens seem to very sharp at the long end but I believe there is a bit of chromatic aberration on the swimmer to the right's hand. Could this possibly be slightly corrected with PP?

I can see exactly what you mean, but I'm not sure it is CA; if it were, I believe it would also be on the water droplets too.

Also, it's not really there (to this extent) on the original - which implies that something I did in PP has made it, or made it worse.

It only seems to be on the flesh or other pinky-red edges and I'm thinking something in my USM contrast enhance and/or sharpening has brought it on. Having done all that, I did then manually burn and desat the hands and some caps, so I'm wondering if, in trying not to 'go over the edge', I have inadvertently created this effect around these things.

Well worth pointing out, I hadn't really noticed it, so thanks, I'll keep a better eye on that in future. This is exactly why I like posting pics here, there's always something to learn and improve upon.

Great feedback, thanks again,