Changi Beach sunrise

[thoongeng]

1. in what area is critique to be sought?
Composition, post-processing

2. what one hopes to achieve with the piece of work?
Capture the nice textures on Changi Beach with a nice sunrise as backdrop

3. under what circumstance is the picture taken? (physical conditions/emotions)
Sunrise. Had difficulties with composition as it was dark when I arrived and didn't recce beforehand ;p Tried a few angles and at different times. For this the sun came out from the cloud cover, so tried to use a coconut in the foregorund for balance. Chose this after looking through the different shots.

4. what the critique seeker personally thinks of the picture
Seascapes looks simple but are deceptively hard to compose for me... hope to get more pointers from the experts here! Also regarding post-processing hopes it is natural looking enough hee


Changi Beach sunrise Feb '13 by knowenoughhappy, on Flickr

Thanks for viewing

 

[zaren]

the challenge is how to balance the bright sky with the dark foreground in typical backlit conditions. use of a graduated neutral density filter will help, or you can adjust the lighting levels and backlighting in post. good use of the coconut for foreground interest.

 

[nitewalk]

I feel the foreground object should be more properly exposed. And the sky seems a little lacking in contrast.

 

[NormanSelvaraju]

I like the textures of the foreground more than the sun in your picture. The way the light hits the sand and gives it a lot of body is nice. But yeah, a little underexposed (in my humble newbie opinion) but nice shot overall. What equipment, btw?

 

[thoongeng]

the challenge is how to balance the bright sky with the dark foreground in typical backlit conditions. use of a graduated neutral density filter will help, or you can adjust the lighting levels and backlighting in post. good use of the coconut for foreground interest.

Thanks mod zaren for your insightful example again!
I used a 3 stop soft GND for this shot, but I guess what I need in addition is a reverse GND if I wanna get this in 1 shot
Mind if you share what PP you did? The clouds on top looked slightly darker though the foreground is brightened, did you brighten up the image with a gradient mask? And also added some saturation?

I feel the foreground object should be more properly exposed. And the sky seems a little lacking in contrast.

Thanks nitewalk for your advice! Next time maybe try some kind of flash or light painting. Hmm I did brighten up the top of the sky a bit as the darkening from the GND looked a bit too much there, probably can add more contrast to the same area also.

I like the textures of the foreground more than the sun in your picture. The way the light hits the sand and gives it a lot of body is nice. But yeah, a little underexposed (in my humble newbie opinion) but nice shot overall. What equipment, btw?

Thanks NormanSelvaraju for your comments!
This was taken with a Canon 500D, EF-S 10-22mm at 13mm, with a 3-stop soft GND. Exposure 1/60s, F8, ISO100
Hope this helps


Thanks shizuma also for dropping by!

 

[zaren]

Thanks mod zaren for your insightful example again!
I used a 3 stop soft GND for this shot, but I guess what I need in addition is a reverse GND if I wanna get this in 1 shot
Mind if you share what PP you did? The clouds on top looked slightly darker though the foreground is brightened, did you brighten up the image with a gradient mask? And also added some saturation?

backlight correction plus some dodging of the LH side, no saturation added, but the increased saturation could be the result of the backlight correction. all PP done in photoscape.

 

[thoongeng]

backlight correction plus some dodging of the LH side, no saturation added, but the increased saturation could be the result of the backlight correction. all PP done in photoscape.

sorry for the MIA... was overseas hehe

Thanks mod zaren for your sharing!