[Jocko]

This picture was taken in the Firth of Forth, as the liquified gas carrier "Happy Penguin" passes the semi submersible drilling rig "Ocean Guardian".
This photograph was taken in September, using my Nikon D80 with 70 - 300 mm Nikon lens. 1/800 sec, f5.6, ISO 125.
   

[MrB]

Good morning, John, you have a good capture and composition of the two vessels there.

(If it were mine, I would straighten the image with a slight clockwise rotation, to make the water level and the rig vertical. There also seems to be a faint pinkish-brown colour cast - the conditions can sometimes be like that but, nevertheless, to me the photo looks better with a slightly cooler colour balance.)

Cheers.
Philip

[Jocko]

I agree with both comments. The legs of the rig are actually vertical and I toyed with the idea of tilting the image to level the water line. The colours were as you see. In fact the colour is a shade bluer than it was, as can be measured on the white superstructure of the ship. The original image I produced was much more neutral but then I decided to go for "real". But you are correct. It looks better twisted and bluer.

[EdMak]

And, a bit more headroom. Ed.

[Jocko]

And, a bit more headroom.

Definitely. There was no more due to poor framing of the original.

[Jocko]

From a different original, here is an attempt to put right the constructive criticism.

   

[EdMak]

Seems a bit hard to me,detail in the pillars lost a bit. It does come across as a silhouette though, which may have been intended. Ed.

[MrB]

I agree with Ed, John. The rig is really interesting structure in the first image, so I would prefer to see all that detail in the second also.

Cheers.
Philip

[Jocko]

How about this one?

   

[EdMak]

On my monitor, a tad more contrast. Ed.

[Jocko]

Once someone else points it out to me, I see it for myself.
   

[Jocko]

Actually, though there is quite a difference in the full size image, contrast wise, the small image posted doesn't look all that different!

[EdMak]

John, that's close to the one I made.

Here is the original, with a bit more headroom, and sharpened a bit. Cheers. Ed.

[Jocko]

Yes, I like that. Cloning in the extra sky makes a huge difference.

[MrB]

The edits seem to have gone a bit too far for my taste - too orange or too blue. This was from the very first posted image, tweaked for the basics in PaintShop Pro:

   

Cheers.
Philip

[Jocko]

That one is very good, Philip. My two choices of colour balance were "Cloudy" or "As shot". I will have to have a look at PaintShop Pro.

[Jocko]

Philip. If I balance the ship's superstructure for white, in your image, I get this.
   
This just proves what I have known all along. Photographic images are very much a matter of personal taste. A compromise here, a compromise there, to achieve what suits the individual. Your choice of colour, definitely looks better than it was on the day.

[MrB]

It is probably a matter of which software you get used to using, John. I have had PaintShop Pro for a few years but, rather than using any presets, a lot of editing is done just using the basics that are normally in any photo software (colour, saturation, brightness, contrast, sharpening, etc.) - sometimes overall, sometimes selectively, usually in small incremental changes, until it looks better to me. There are lots of such tweaks here - two examples: overall I changed the colour balance by adjusting the RGB levels, but selectively I have used the brightness control to try to reduce the glow of the background behind the legs of the rig.

Cheers.
Philip

P.S. And if I started again, it would be unlikely to end up quite the same!

[EdMak]

Your choice of colour, definitely looks better than it was on the day.

That says a lot John. Ed.