Sunburst at Fairy Point

[Stoned]

Another photo I dug up from my fairy point shoot. My aim was originally to achieve a sense of tranquility and drama in the shot. I initially preferred another composition out of 5 images taken but I found the colour combination of this shot somewhat interesting and decided to post it here to see what you guys think.

[espion]

I think there is too much contrast, and you can see neither rock nor sun. Maybe less contrast in the sun, so we can see the rays more dsistinctly. Foreshore details maybe unnecessary, just enough to frame the subject, which is the sun.

[Stoned]

Originally Posted by espion I think there is too much contrast, and you can see neither rock nor sun. Maybe less contrast in the sun, so we can see the rays more dsistinctly. Foreshore details maybe unnecessary, just enough to frame the subject, which is the sun.

I agree that there is too much contrast. I would have definitely have liked to have 1 more GND8 on hand but I didn't. Might be looking into picking one more! It's definitely possible to get what you have described if I merge two of the 5 exps i made but I don't do HDR merging as a personal preference.

Thanks for the suggestions though.

[night86mare]

I find the colour quite unappealing and flat.

Also, the positioning and arrangement of the rocks are not to my taste - there is no form of thought that appears to be present, though I could be mistaken, I admit. But to me, it just seems like they're being placed there for the sake of there being rocks - I've done it before, of course. =D

Tranquility is there, evident from the calmness of the water due to the apparent long exposure I see, but not drama. I was there the other day as well, and the rays.. Are not quite brought out here in this picture, which would have rendered it a lot more dramatic and improved it quite a bit.

Perhaps, sacrifice the details in the rocks (after finding a more aesthetically pleasing silhouette arrangement), and expose for the rays to be caught? =)

[Yatlapball]

I would like to ask a question instead of giving comments though. Heh.

Did you use fill flash or something angled at the ground? I just found it sort of odd that the submerged rocks in the foreground are so well-lit.

[Stoned]

Originally Posted by night86mare I find the colour quite unappealing and flat. Also, the positioning and arrangement of the rocks are not to my taste - there is no form of thought that appears to be present, though I could be mistaken, I admit. But to me, it just seems like they're being placed there for the sake of there being rocks - I've done it before, of course. =D Tranquility is there, evident from the calmness of the water due to the apparent long exposure I see, but not drama. I was there the other day as well, and the rays.. Are not quite brought out here in this picture, which would have rendered it a lot more dramatic and improved it quite a bit. Perhaps, sacrifice the details in the rocks (after finding a more aesthetically pleasing silhouette arrangement), and expose for the rays to be caught? =)

The part about the purpose of the rocks is true and I originally presented another image under the landscapes and travel section because the composition was stronger. This is the reason why I posted this image here instead of there since I'm interested to hear what others have to poke at it too.

This particular image was shot after the rays were gone, but I do have another here where the rays were present, though again not that well captured(When the sun was behind the cloud).



Colour-wise, for this particular shoot I tried to keep it less saturated than my normal work, to fit in with the overall theme. Still not something I'm working well with I guess. The shoot was quite dismal for me and didn't really turn out anything spectacular but it is shooting experience nonetheless.

On a side note, I did experiment with exposing for the sun as well(not the rays) after the cloud had moved on but despite having 16 stops worth of NDGrad filter with me, this was about as much detail as I could manage.



Probably will need to give that same area a shot again I guess, better armed Thanks for bothering to give your thoughts.

Yatlapball, I use Grad filters, which are quite useful for landscapes. Fill flash would not look as natural and neither would HDR. Naturally, you can also get the same effect as HDR quite easily in the present digital age.

[tribal.snake]

both pics look good.
would recommend to crop away most of the rocks below

first pic very constrasty
mood of 2nd is very nice.

[eyes]

I took the liberty to help you in this. If you don't like it, let me know, I'll remove it.

[Stoned]

Originally Posted by eyes I took the liberty to help you in this. If you don't like it, let me know, I'll remove it.

I appreciate the effort, but it looks kinda artificial, which is what I try to avoid. Thanks lots anyway!

[lkkang]

since this is a critique corner.. I did some modification on you photo... hope you do not mind, comments are most welcome. cheers.

[nysheng]

hmmz.. isn't tranquility and drama ur main objective? though i find it quite hard to combine those two.
the high contrast doesn't realli carry the tranquility across, though there's some drama.
and yeah, the colours do look a little on the flat side? try PP the colours further?