Glow

[syphrix]

Hi everyone!

I wish to seek some constructive comments or advices on the following photo:

[url=http://www.flickr.com/photos/65845898@N07/8432045656/] [/URL]

1. In which area is critique or feedback to be given?
Overall exposure, composition or post processing techniques. Or any of your thoughts on my photo.

2. What were you hoping to achieve with this image?
I wish to capture the texture of the rocks being highlighted by the setting sun. Showcasing a unique side of Singapore with man-made and natural elements side by side.

3. Under what circumstance was the picture taken? (physical conditions/emotions)
I was amazed by the natural landscape that I capture the scene in the best possible way.

4. Thread-starter's personal thoughts about the image.
Personally, I liked this a lot and I spent quite some time to process it. The final photo was achieved by manually blend 3 shots as well as some Photoshop tricks.
As I'm still learning about Photoshop techniques, I hope I didn't overdo it or did a bad job.


Thank you for taking time to look and comment about my photo.
Looking forward to learn more from the knowledgeable community here!

Thanks!

 

[SilverPine]

Composition is O.K., Nice sunset but just too bright for the sun. If I stack two GND one hard and one soft a total of 6 f/stop plus a CPL still would not able to correct the exposure different between the sun and the rocks. The better solution would be using a ND filter with black card technique. Some people use flash to highlight the rocks. Any methods will be good as long as it work for you.

 

[thoongeng]

nice sunset, and nice texture in the rocks!

however I keep getting drawn to the man made structure... probably because of it's size and contrasting colour... maybe can try omitting it or composing it to the right of the photo maybe it can help balance the sun
probably the sea to the right should be brighter... as it looks dark though the rocks are well exposed
and the horizon looks very slightly tilted to the right

Thanks for sharing!

 

[shiosaki]

Hi,

I am guessing you used quite extreme brackets for the blending of the sky, the ships on the horizon are slightly too dark to look realistic.
When the sun is up i think you will need more brackets to blend it correctly.

The sky is slightly too saturated as well, but thats for me...

I would also suggest recovering more of the shadows since you want to show them and they are kind of undefined now.

Just my thoughts

 

[nitewalk]

The glow of the top of the triangular structure seems a little unnatural considering it is a back lit scene. Agree that the ship could be slightly more exposed. Without reading your writeup, for some reason, i kept thinking it is an HDR image.

 

[syphrix]

Composition is O.K., Nice sunset but just too bright for the sun. If I stack two GND one hard and one soft a total of 6 f/stop plus a CPL still would not able to correct the exposure different between the sun and the rocks. The better solution would be using a ND filter with black card technique. Some people use flash to highlight the rocks. Any methods will be good as long as it work for you.

Thank you SilverPine for your comments!
Now that you mentioned it, I agreed that the sun is a little too bright.
I wish to clarify something, when you said that I could used a ND filter with black card, are you suggesting a 10-stop ND filter and using the black card to reduce the exposure of the sun?

 

[syphrix]

nice sunset, and nice texture in the rocks!

however I keep getting drawn to the man made structure... probably because of it's size and contrasting colour... maybe can try omitting it or composing it to the right of the photo maybe it can help balance the sun
probably the sea to the right should be brighter... as it looks dark though the rocks are well exposed
and the horizon looks very slightly tilted to the right

Thanks for sharing!

Thanks! Glad you liked it
I agreed that it's kind of left-heavy (not balanced). I tried to look for another angle to position the man made structure on the right of the photo but was unable to do so.

You are right! The horizon is tilted very slightly to the right. You have sharp eyes! haha.
Thanks for pointing it out.

 

[syphrix]

Hi,

I am guessing you used quite extreme brackets for the blending of the sky, the ships on the horizon are slightly too dark to look realistic.
When the sun is up i think you will need more brackets to blend it correctly.

The sky is slightly too saturated as well, but thats for me...

I would also suggest recovering more of the shadows since you want to show them and they are kind of undefined now.

Just my thoughts

Hi!

I used only 3 brackets for this shot. One for the sky, one for the sea and one for the rocks.
Thanks for the tip! I will try it next time.

Got to learn how to blend more brackets.

Thanks for your comments. Appreciate it.

 

[syphrix]

The glow of the top of the triangular structure seems a little unnatural considering it is a back lit scene. Agree that the ship could be slightly more exposed. Without reading your writeup, for some reason, i kept thinking it is an HDR image.

I guess you could call this shot a HDR shot. My intention was to try to show everything as natural as possible.
Perhaps I should make the structure slightly under-exposed?

Hmm, would it be better if I remove the ships and the structures completely from the horizon?