Hey, thanks all for your votes and comments! A ribbon is always a treat! Lots of processing on this one to give the sky a little personality. The rocks and sea just needed a little dodge and burn. :) I'll post details and editing info later for those that wonder.
****
Processing--I worked on this more than any file to date. Most of my work was to balance the rocks with a sufficiently darkened sky. It was overcast but there was subtle cloud texture. However, it was very difficult to bring out the texture in the BW version.
LR processing--two files, one for rocks/sea and another for the sky.
Curves and contrast--Channel mixer for BW(i think i included a layer with a slight brown tone)
LOTS of dodge and burn in the rocks using dodge/burn tool, selective levels, and curves adjustment layers
Cloned dust spots
Cloned a couple of motion blurred spots that I think were other sea gulls.
Darkened sky with gradient layer set to multiply, masked out the rocks.
Neat image layer for sky only
Resize
Selective sharpening and global USM
Save
***
One more for some context
Statistics
Place: 3 out of 388 Avg (all users): 7.1548 Avg (commenters): 8.3333 Avg (participants): 7.2250 Avg (non-participants): 6.9792 Views since voting: 4549 Views during voting: 294 Votes: 168 Comments: 46 Favorites: 8 (view)
Oh Jeeeez! That is so beautiful! After having spent a week on the Pacific Coast last September, hoping desperately to get something along this line, I appreciate even more what it takes to get a shot like this. The weather on the ocean is typically so uncooperative for clear and still. Congratulations on perfection! So award worthy!
terrific image Mark, congrats on your FS ribbon!! It's amazing to me how the little stuff on the beach remained sharp despite the apparently long exposure and multiple waves coming through...
Solitude
Add photograph to your favorites
Add photographer to your favorites
Photographer found comment helpful.
