I took this at the beach about dawn.
I increased the contrast and color saturation, brightened it up, and then ran it through Neat Image.
I do wish I could get rid of the box in the background.
Too bad for Basic Editing...
Statistics
Place: 165 out of 249 Avg (all users): 5.1987 Avg (commenters): 5.1429 Avg (participants): 4.9048 Avg (non-participants): 5.4091 Views since voting: 595 Views during voting: 205 Votes: 151 Comments: 9 Favorites: 0
An interesting subject with enough symmetry to meet the challenge, and enough asymmetry to be interesting. The centered composition has the intended effect of emphasizing the symmetry.
Technically, there are good points and bad points. Focus is OK, as are levels and contrast. Colors are realistic. But the horizon isn't level and it's overexposed (burning out a lot of the sky) and oversharpened (putting halos around some of the edges). You didn't mention sharpening as one of your steps; but Neat Image has this feature as well as noise reduction. (And an SLR at ISO 100 should not have had significant noise; I'm not sure why Neat Image would be needed at all.)
But the focal point of this photo, where at least my attention is repeatedly drawn to, is the box in the background. I can see why you want to get rid of it! But without the box, there isn't a real focal point; the viewer's eye still tends to see right through the bike and focus on the background. Part of the problem is that the bike is mostly a silhouette, so it's like looking through a fence or something that we do everyday without thinking about it; that's just how our eyes and brains work. But the distraction of the bright white sky is also a factor.
Three suggestions for improvement. First, crop off the top third or so of the photo, eliminating the white part of the sky. Second, convert to black and white so the colors of the background aren't so attractive. (The bike is pretty much black and white anyway.) Third, shoot this from a lower angle. That's not something you can change on this photo, but putting the chain guard closer to the ocean would help focus attention on the bike.
Beautiful colors and subject. Really great. You're going to be hammered for the non-level horizon, but otherwise it's really well done. I'd be interested to know more about how you achieved the sky effect.
The horizon does not appear to be straight. I think it would have been helpful to get rid of the object in the background and pushed the bike back towards the middle of the sand so that the concrete isn't in the shot in the foreground. I like the concept.
Add photograph to your favorites
Add photographer to your favorites
Photographer found comment helpful.
