Into the Sunset

[leshrec]

1. in what area is critique to be sought?

I would appreciate any C&C on composition, exposure as well as any other ways this picture can be improved upon. (Should I crop anything? Or perhaps any PP that will improve the picture?)

2. what one hopes to achieve with the piece of work?

The feeling of someone walking into the sunset, identical to those movies where the lead character walks off into the sunset at the end. I was also trying to create a warm type of feeling that one gets when walking in the evening sun.

3. under what circumstance is the picture taken? (physical conditions/emotions)

This photograph was taken when I was taking an evening walk with my wife and my dogs which you can see in the picture. I was trying to take a picture of the setting sun but I noticed my wife and the long shadows created the opportunity for this shot.

4. what the critique seeker personally thinks of the picture

Personally, I like how the railings that start from the bottom of the picture leads the eyes to my wife. In addition, the road on the right gives an illusion of depth as they lead off toward the sun making it seem as if my wife is walking into the sunset. Last but not least, I tried to compose this image using the golden triangle rule, with the three parts consisting of the sea, the sun and the road my wife is walking on.

Thanks for viewing!

Matt

 

[coolthought]

hi there.
Not an expert but I will just suggest a few ways I will try if I were there.
1. I don't quite the underexpose on the left side. So, I will bracket my shots and do either a blanding or hdr during post processing.
2. I will just focus and crop the shot with more emphasis on the road, rail and sun and leaving out the beach entirely.
3. I will use a gnd filter to help with lessening the difference in f-stop between the beach and the road.
4. I will take shots when the sun is just below the hill.
Hope these suggestions might help.

 

[CamInit]

For the existing pic, the left half of the picture doesn't contribute to the title. I'll crop it out. Make it a vertical instead of horizontal to lead the eye.
I thought of B&W but you will lost the golden cast, maybe experiment with serpia or something.

Ideally, maybe I'll shoot slightly closer and a few shots in succession. Closer to hopefully capture some rim lighting in her hair and maybe the dogs' fur when view at full size but still far away enough to keep the shadow. A few shots to catch her and the dogs in motion, to stay truer to the "into" part of your title. The one in the shot looks a bit too static.

 

[leshrec]

hi there.
Not an expert but I will just suggest a few ways I will try if I were there.
1. I don't quite the underexpose on the left side. So, I will bracket my shots and do either a blanding or hdr during post processing.
2. I will just focus and crop the shot with more emphasis on the road, rail and sun and leaving out the beach entirely.
3. I will use a gnd filter to help with lessening the difference in f-stop between the beach and the road.
4. I will take shots when the sun is just below the hill.
Hope these suggestions might help.

Thanks Coolthought for your suggestions.

I don't know anything about blending and will read up on it. Regarding HDR, I haven't done it before but will experiment on it.

I'll try cropping off the beach and just focus on the right side once I get home and post the new one.

4. is a good point, I should have been more patient and take more shots when the sun was setting.

For the existing pic, the left half of the picture doesn't contribute to the title. I'll crop it out. Make it a vertical instead of horizontal to lead the eye.
I thought of B&W but you will lost the golden cast, maybe experiment with serpia or something.

Ideally, maybe I'll shoot slightly closer and a few shots in succession. Closer to hopefully capture some rim lighting in her hair and maybe the dogs' fur when view at full size but still far away enough to keep the shadow. A few shots to catch her and the dogs in motion, to stay truer to the "into" part of your title. The one in the shot looks a bit too static.

Thanks CamInit for viewing. Seems its a common consensus that the left half is dead space so I'll just crop it out. I did try B&W but as what you said, I'll lose the warmth glow of the setting sun. Did not try sepia but will test it out. Thanks for suggesting the improvements on how to shoot, will try to put them to use the next time. I do feel the subject (My wife) was a little to small in this picture too.

Thanks again everyone and keep the comments coming so I can improve my picture :bsmilie:

Matt

 

[MRSAMO]

That's a bloody nice place Matt, Bronte beach right?, I hope you live there so I don't have to commuted all the way from the other side of town just to jog (not that I live there any more haha).

My critiques:

- Sun might be better if its lower, then maybe you can expose the view on the right a bit better if you still want it there
- Otherwise the right side dominates the picture the most and I like the soothing effects of the sun setting and your wife and dog walking into it
- Maybe next time get them involved in something like watching over at the sea, can your dogs jump? I'm thinking a little action and some bokeh (facing or facing away from the sun), use the warm glow of the sun, people still know that it's sunset
- Don't do HDR for this shot, I've tried it at GOR facing the sun and it didn't work
- Next time if you go there again try sunrise where the sun comes out from the sea like this:

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3201/3081804606_4e2098995b_z.jpg?zz=1 (didn't want to post the picture to overshadow yours)

 

[night86mare]

1. consider cropping off the left, those waves and the sudden highlights amidst relatively dark areas distract

2. sun being lower would be good, but you won't get this sort of shadows, so i think this is fine

3. my other suggestion is to crop off some of the top, and then present this as panoramic/semipano.

 

[daredevil123]

Actually I kinda like the picture and feel it gives... Maybe some exposure blending using layers could have made the cove looks much better. But I love how the shadow of the woman and her dong falls on the pavement. Once the sun sets behind the hill, it becomes another different kind of picture.

Where is this? Australia?

 

[renzokuken]

i'm new to giving critiques but this is what i feel about the picture

i like the overall impact of the picture

the roads, pavement and the handrail drew my attention towards the women and the sun
i totally paid no attention to the underexposed sea towards the left of the picture

suggestions for improvements

• Maybe tweak the underexpose sea by abit (but not too much or it's going to steal attention away from the main subject)
  .
• it would have been better if the woman is standing one tile (tile on the pavement) closer to you, she would have been bigger and it would add-on to impact, (a tighter crop won't do the trick as you need the lines created by the rails and roads mentioned previously)
  .
• Perhaps a smaller aperture to bring out the rays casted by the sun (unless you're already using f16)

Just my two-cents
as i said, i like the overall impact of the picture

 

[leshrec]

Thanks everyone for viewing and taking the time to give comments! Apologies for posting so late, had to work late last few days due to the holiday season coming and was dead beat by the time I got home.

That's a bloody nice place Matt, Bronte beach right?, I hope you live there so I don't have to commuted all the way from the other side of town just to jog (not that I live there any more haha).

My critiques:

- Sun might be better if its lower, then maybe you can expose the view on the right a bit better if you still want it there
- Otherwise the right side dominates the picture the most and I like the soothing effects of the sun setting and your wife and dog walking into it
- Maybe next time get them involved in something like watching over at the sea, can your dogs jump? I'm thinking a little action and some bokeh (facing or facing away from the sun), use the warm glow of the sun, people still know that it's sunset
- Don't do HDR for this shot, I've tried it at GOR facing the sun and it didn't work
- Next time if you go there again try sunrise where the sun comes out from the sea like this:

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3201/3081804606_4e2098995b_z.jpg?zz=1 (didn't want to post the picture to overshadow yours)

Spot on Sam! I live quite close actually, about a 15 mins drive.

Thats a good idea on getting them involved. I'll try something like that the next time, maybe not them jumping though because I've tried taking shots of them around that time while they are running and my shutter speed was too low to get a clear shot. A shot of them watching over the sea would very much be possible though. Love the shot you linked, its fantastic! Will try a sunrise shot one of these days, probably during the xmas/new year period. Thanks for giving me an idea on a good sunrise shot!

1. consider cropping off the left, those waves and the sudden highlights amidst relatively dark areas distract

2. sun being lower would be good, but you won't get this sort of shadows, so i think this is fine

3. my other suggestion is to crop off some of the top, and then present this as panoramic/semipano.

Hi night86mare, I agree that the left side is distracting and have cropped it off. Regarding the sun being lower, I think that it will create a longer shadow no? Too low though and there would be no more shadow :bsmilie: Just need the right time I guess.

Not sure that I would like to present this as a pano shot though because my main focus was to emphasize on my wife and the sunset. Will try anyway just to see if it works out. Thanks for your suggestion!

 

[leshrec]

Actually I kinda like the picture and feel it gives... Maybe some exposure blending using layers could have made the cove looks much better. But I love how the shadow of the woman and her dong falls on the pavement. Once the sun sets behind the hill, it becomes another different kind of picture.

Where is this? Australia?

Hi daredevil123, thanks for your comments and glad that you like the feeling the picture gives. Unfortunately, I have no idea what is exposure blending using layers and it sounds like something from photoshop. I do use lightroom to do basic pp so will read up more on it to see if I can do that in lr.

Yes this is Australia, Sydney to be exact. Near one of the best beaches in Australia, Bondi Beach. A lot of celebrities come here with the most recent being Paris Hilton and Hugh Jackman. Squeaky white beaches and in summer, a lot of the locals also sunbath here topless ;p

i'm new to giving critiques but this is what i feel about the picture

i like the overall impact of the picture

the roads, pavement and the handrail drew my attention towards the women and the sun
i totally paid no attention to the underexposed sea towards the left of the picture

suggestions for improvements

• Maybe tweak the underexpose sea by abit (but not too much or it's going to steal attention away from the main subject)
  .
• it would have been better if the woman is standing one tile (tile on the pavement) closer to you, she would have been bigger and it would add-on to impact, (a tighter crop won't do the trick as you need the lines created by the rails and roads mentioned previously)
  .
• Perhaps a smaller aperture to bring out the rays casted by the sun (unless you're already using f16)

Just my two-cents
as i said, i like the overall impact of the picture

Hi renzokuken, thanks for taking the time to give a critique. The handrail and pavement was supposed to draw your eyes to my subject (My wife) and I'm glad that it has that effect for you! As per the other readers comments, instead of tweaking with the sea, I have decided to just crop it out instead and am happy with the results.

About the aperture, I was using f/11. I didn't know that using a smaller aperture would bring out the sun rays and thanks for highlighting that to me. Always learn something new when reading these forums! :bsmilie:

Matt

 

[leshrec]

Edited version. Cropped off the beach and brightened it a tad more. Added a bit of vignetting to make the sun glow more obvious.

Thank you everyone once again for viewing and taking the time to comment. Please do advise on the edited photograph!

Matt

 

[coolthought]

composition wise look a lot better.
let me pixel pick for a bit, sharpness doesn't quite seems to be there. Maybe because of ca caused by backlighting? I'm not too sure about other pp software but in photoshop, there is feature that will help to correct ca.

 

[renzokuken]

weird

i really like the un-cropped one more

 

[coolthought]

weird

i really like the un-cropped one more

this sort of thing sometimes can be quite subjective.
the purpose of having such a crop is to focus on the main leading line and the main element in the photo.

 

[CamInit]

weird

i really like the un-cropped one more

Hmm... Same feelings here. Sometimes while a shot may be technically right, it just somehow lacks the "feel". The new version at first seems somewhat tilted, due to the lines on the road.
:think:

 

[daredevil123]

2. I will just focus and crop the shot with more emphasis on the road, rail and sun and leaving out the beach entirely.

Edited version. Cropped off the beach and brightened it a tad more. Added a bit of vignetting to make the sun glow more obvious.

Thank you everyone once again for viewing and taking the time to comment. Please do advise on the edited photograph!

composition wise look a lot better.

I strongly disagree with this cropping away of the beach. Without the beach the entire character of the location is lost. This crop just wasted the view totally IMHO.

All you need to crop away are the brighter waves at the lower left corner of the frame of the original picture. Right about the part before where the railing meets the bottom of the frame.

 

[daredevil123]

this sort of thing sometimes can be quite subjective.
the purpose of having such a crop is to focus on the main leading line and the main element in the photo.

Bro... technical understanding and execution is important. And you have gained that over the months we have been shooting together. But now you need to start feeling the emotional part of photography. Learn to see the feel, the emotion behind every shot. Knowing the rules is important, but sometimes just have to let go of the rules and go with flow. Because, in the end, 'feel' and emotion will trump technical perfection every time.

 

[coolthought]

I strongly disagree with this cropping away of the beach. Without the beach the entire character of the location is lost. This crop just wasted the view totally IMHO.

All you need to crop away are the brighter waves at the lower left corner of the frame of the original picture. Right about the part before where the railing meets the bottom of the frame.

agree. The original feel of the first photo is gone with that crop. The main element of the photo, the sun is placed in the "centre" giving a entirely different feel. The focus is lean more towards the technical aspect of the frame.

Bro... technical understanding and execution is important. And you have gained that over the months we have been shooting together. But now you need to start feeling the emotional part of photography. Learn to see the feel, the emotion behind every shot. Knowing the rules is important, but sometimes just have to let go of the rules and go with flow. Because, in the end, 'feel' and emotion will trump technical perfection every time.

noted. feel and emotion.

 

[MRSAMO]

I did a visual crop of just your wife and the dogs with a bit of rail, although it looks small it's still ok.

My advice would be to do a few take, like a series starting with close ups of your subject in around the same location, play around with the available settings and light and see what ideas you can develop from there. Also try a one image HDR process to bring up the right a little more and see how that looks.

 

[daredevil123]

I did a visual crop of just your wife and the dogs with a bit of rail, although it looks small it's still ok.

My advice would be to do a few take, like a series starting with close ups of your subject in around the same location, play around with the available settings and light and see what ideas you can develop from there. Also try a one image HDR process to bring up the right a little more and see how that looks.

I would avoid hdr. Single image Exposure blending or adjustment brush selective exposure boost will work better.