Sunset at Lower Pierce Reservoir

[zhenchang]

Hi all,

This is my first posting for critique. Hope to learn as much as I can from you guys!!

sunset 3 | Flickr - Photo Sharing!

1. In which area is critique or feedback to be given?
Was wondering how I can improve the composition, to make the photo more striking. Also, is the colours adjusted well enough?

2. What were you hoping to achieve with this image?
To capture the dramatic effects of the sky by the setting sun, as a backdrop to the silhouette of the structure.

3. Under what circumstance was the picture taken? (physical conditions/emotions)
My first time taking pictures at Lower Pierce Reservoir. Was hanging around after the sun has went down, and was rewarded with this interesting mix of colours in the sky. Post-processing, did a bit of adjustment to white balance, brightness and contrast.

4. Thread-starter's personal thoughts about the image.
Just started on photography, still learning how to capture sunsets properly.

 

[shiosaki]

hi,
very nice sky.

i think there is too much foreground subjects for the foreground to be left in the dark
of course if you want this look its possible also..but i guess you need to find a composition that can better delineate the foreground elements
now they look like a huge black patch that is taking up 1/2 of the bottom

just my opinions
and hope it helps

 

[JoonWeh]

i agree with shiosaki on this, seems that alot of the foreground is foresaken for the sunset's exposure. Perhaps you could do a little HDR to expose the foreground objects? Just a 0.001 cents of opinion. And composition wise, i feel its a little flat... Perhaps you could compose it such that it gives a little depth?

By the way, its really my amateur thoughts.
Hope its actually correct!
Cheers, im still learning alot and pretty amateur too!

 

[Aisyah]

Thanks for sharing,

 

[bonrya]

Nice colours! Since you already caught the reflection in the water you should have used a wider angle to capture the whole reflection too.. but also up to your preference.

Lovely~

 

[zhenchang]

Thanks to all for the constructive comments! I'm gonna head over there soon and give more thought to composition, ratio of foreground vs the rest. Unfortunately the widest lens I have right now is only 28m...

 

[takafan]

Naturally, this is the limitation of the camera. If you expose for the pretty skies, the foreground will be left in dark.

What you can do here is to get a Grad ND filter to bridge the gap between the sky and foreground and therefore, extract more foreground detail.

You can read more about it here:
Using Graduated Neutral Density Filters

 

[nitewalk]

I think for a start the colours of the sky has been captured well so that is a good start. There are some silhouetted photos which work and some that don't, but I think this is fine and there are some structures which you could see. I think as Shiosaki pointed out there are too much black below, and I feel that this arises because you have cut off the bottom. I'm not sure why would you want to do so but it does appear that you have cropped out the below? In most cases, I'd go with a complete reflection of the foreground object. Without cropping out the bottom, the proportion of the black patch below would be reduced and doesn't look like a mess of black.

It is a pity of course, as I rarely get to shoot with such a glorious sky. I think the use of GNDs must be exercised with some caution. There are hard grads and soft grads and in this case I'd use soft grads and not too strong a filter as well, if not part of the structures will be darkened too obviously.

 

[zhenchang]

That's a good article to read, thanks! I will probably make it my next purchase =)