Sunset

[andante]

This is my first time taking a picture of the sunset. The picture is taken at Labrador park near the jetty. I hope to be critiqued on my composition and technique.
I want to take a picture of the sunset at the background, the jetty in the middle and the fishing rod in the foreground. I felt that it would add dimension to the picture. Did the picture give that effect? The fishing rod has been included in the shot to show that the place is a popular fishing spot.
I wonder does the picture look underexposed? The bottom right corner is totally black. I wish to show the details of the railings as well. Is there a technique that I can use?

Thanks

 

[melvinchen]

Fundamentally sound...but unexciting.

I think you probably intended the railing/rods to be sort of your foreground to create depth, but it didn't quite kick.

perhaps to add dimension, i can suggest going wider and being physically very close to either the railing or the fishing rod, to exaggerate depth. This way, the near objects appear much larger, while the far objects look even smaller (at wide angle).

Suggest camera positions could be just above railings but camera slightly tilted down to compose the railings, or camera behind railings and slightly lower angle, pointed upwards to fit railing on bottom one-fifth and containing the railing.

Try visualising how your scene will look like if you look at it from different angles...then place your camera there. the zoom is just used for cropping, dun get too used to composing with your zoom...it kills creativity.

Also you can try different exposures and underexposing it further to reveal deeper tones in the sky...and use some fill flash on the nearer objects (perhaps set flash EV to -2 or -1.5 or something..)

Just some ideas...

 

[icebox]

Can try waiting a few minutes or tens of minutes more, for the sun to set a bit more. The lighting may get better and allow you to expose for both clouds and foreground (not perfectly but slightly better).

And try not to cut the picture into half with the jetty or horizon.

 

[calebk]

Care to share you settings? It looks as though you shot it with insufficient depth of field; the cranes in the extreme background look soft.

 

[andante]

Care to share you settings? It looks as though you shot it with insufficient depth of field; the cranes in the extreme background look soft.

The web photo server that I posted the shot displays the following info:
Camera: DMC-FZ8
Exposure: 1/500s
F-number: F8 --> that's the max I can get from my cam.
Focal Length: 6mm --> got such a short focal length ?
ISO: 100

I've also uploaded some other pictures in a web photo server. Do visit it and give some comments on my shots please. Thanks
http://fotologue.jp/andante84/

Now that I visit the photo server, the shots seems to be brighter and different from the one I posted. Did the server auto contrast the shot for me? :think:

 

[icebox]

Focal Length: 6mm --> got such a short focal length ?

The FZ8's sensor is smaller, so it can achieve the same equivalent focal length as DSLRs/SLRs using shorter focal length lenses.

I think 6mm is around 6*6=36mm on 35mm equivalent. Or 23mm on mid-range Canon DSLRs, 24 on Nikons.