Diocletian

Conditions were perfect. Great light. Great waves. Shot doesn't work. What did I do wrong? Any suggestions appreciated. The first one is uncropped, sky blown out top right. Second one is cropped.

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R.G. Loc: Scotland

The reason why the second one isn't working is because you cropped out most of the drama in the sky. That was one of the big positives in the original. But it can benefit from some cropping to bring the pier into prominence. What it needs is a mixture of cropping and fixing the blown parts of the sky. And if you give it any more editing after that, don't edit out any of the drama in the sky.

I've done a quick edit where I used the clone tool to fix the blown parts of the sky and then cropped in a bit. With your permission I'll post my edit.

MSW

I agree with R.G.

Diocletian

Well, poop. I thought the cropped image was better. Go figure.
Yes, please post your edit, I will go to Starbucks with it and meditate on the enhanced image and a cup of coffee. Maybe some enlightenment will come....or, maybe not. Thanks for the insights, I really appreciate your time.

Diocletian

I really appreciate your looking at it! My artistic talent is as blown out as that sky!!

SonyA580 Loc: FL in the winter & MN in the summer

You might want to try this shot as a black and white after you get the composition figured out. It's dramatic enough work well in monochrome.

Diocletian

Great idea! I'll try that.

R.G. Loc: Scotland

Where cropping is concerned, you're probably better going with your own preferences, but be aware that when cropping out problem areas there's a chance that you might end up losing some good stuff in the process.

For my edit, all I did was clone out problem areas and crop. I'm not suggesting that the editing should stop there. However, I do have one or two recommendations. Normally lowering highlights helps to bring out details in soft skies, but in this case, haze in the sky doesn't seem to be a problem, and one of the things that contributes to your sky's interesting look is the bright highlights.

If you add contrast and/or clarity you may find that the blue areas in the sky become too dark and solid. You can counter that by lifting the shadows a bit. You'll probably get the optimum effect by balancing contrast/clarity and lifting shadows (preferably select the sky to work on it separately). Some parts of the sky may be close to being blown, and adding contrast/clarity may be enough to push them over the limit, so you may have to counter that by lowering Whites, or if you don't have that, lowering the highlights. Again, it should be a case of balancing contrast and clarity adjustments with levels adjustments.

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No editing other than cloning and cropping.

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Diocletian

Thanks so much for your recommendations. That improved the shot quite a bit. I've been fiddling around with photoshop a little, and worked this shot with contrast, exposure, a couple of other things....but .....as you said....too much fiddling ....

I appreciate your time!

R.G. Loc: Scotland

You're welcome. (PS - Nice shot ).

pappleg

Although you say "conditions were perfect" the contrast range was rather extreme. Moving surf usually precludes an HDR process but depending on your camera some will allow a three bracket exposure on high speed continuous shooting which could at least partially solve that problem giving you an expanded range to work with.

Pat

Diocletian

Wait! I haven't gotten to that part in my book yet! But I will go back and see if I can figure it out. My camera HAS been doing that...and I wondered what that was for....thanks for pointing that out to me. That'll be my Sunday assignment....🤗🤗🤗

Diocletian

Thanks for the thumbs up!