Sunset in Hoi An, Vietnam

[BryantEng]

<a data-flickr-embed="true" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/133452989@N07/29339918163/in/dateposted-public/" title="Hoi An, Vietnam"><img src="https://c4.staticflickr.com/9/8189/29339918163_507f4b4f0b_k.jpg" width="2048" height="937" alt="Hoi An, Vietnam"></a><script async src="//embedr.flickr.com/assets/client-code.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

Hello everyone! It's been a while since my last photo critique post (Feb 2016), and I would like to gather feedback and comments on my composition and lighting again to get a sensing if I have improved over the last few months.

I made a recent trip to Hoi An, Vietnam in August, in the hopes of taking lots of landscapes and portraits. Unfortunately, I forgot to bring my camera sling and this was a huge pain because I was riding a motorbike all around and had to keep the camera in my backpack.

Anyway, here's the photo (one of my favourites from the trip). It was taken at sunset around 7pm, at a bridge spanning across the river. I had misjudged the fact that the sun would actually begin to set "earlier" because of the mountains behind, and I had to rush to get my camera out. I didn't have enough time to judge the correct GND to put on so this was slightly over exposed.

Again, I would love if there were comments on the general feel of the photo (what was the first thing in the photo that captured your attention?), composition (too wide/narrow, interesting foreground/background) and lighting (how well did I compensate for the setting sun)?

Full res link: https://flic.kr/p/LGEKtZ
(EXIF Data included in Flickr)


Thank you everyone!

 

[BryantEng]

 

[thoongeng]

First thing that caught my attention is the dramatic sky. Good job capturing and editing it.

Just my 2 cents about the rest of the photograph... I felt there is too much foreground without interesting elements to add to the scene, thus diluting the impact of the dramatic sky. The boats on the left are also cut off... so I would crop out the left and the bottom to focus more attention on the main subject which here I thought it was the sky. Alternatively you can also wait for one of the moving boats to come closer and use it as your foreground subject, a bonus if the person on the boat is wearing some tradition clothing or headgear.

The buildings were also a little too bright and blue (relative to the sky), making them vying for attention from the main subject rather than complementing it (and because of your editing there is a bright outline along the treeline and buildings against the mountains behind)

I edited your photo to illustrate what I mean... I darkened the buildings a bit and warmed up the colours so they blend better with the sky behind. I might be totally wrong regarding your intention for your photograph, and if you want I can always take down my edited version so just let me know

Thanks for sharing

 

[BryantEng]

First thing that caught my attention is the dramatic sky. Good job capturing and editing it.

Just my 2 cents about the rest of the photograph... I felt there is too much foreground without interesting elements to add to the scene, thus diluting the impact of the dramatic sky. The boats on the left are also cut off... so I would crop out the left and the bottom to focus more attention on the main subject which here I thought it was the sky. Alternatively you can also wait for one of the moving boats to come closer and use it as your foreground subject, a bonus if the person on the boat is wearing some tradition clothing or headgear.

The buildings were also a little too bright and blue (relative to the sky), making them vying for attention from the main subject rather than complementing it (and because of your editing there is a bright outline along the treeline and buildings against the mountains behind)

I edited your photo to illustrate what I mean... I darkened the buildings a bit and warmed up the colours so they blend better with the sky behind. I might be totally wrong regarding your intention for your photograph, and if you want I can always take down my edited version so just let me know

Thanks for sharing

Hi thoongeng, thanks for the tips! Actually, I do like your edit better as the temperature and exposure of the buildings fits in better with the whole photo. I initially boosted the exposure of the buildings because I wanted to improve the detail level there, but like you mentioned, it doesn't quite fit with the sun in the background.

The boat at the bottom left was unfortunate, I didn't notice it in frame as I was focusing on the sky, but during the post processing I thought it would be nice to leave it there instead of cropping it away as it could help "close" the photo a little.

Thanks for helping to critique my photo!

 

[hoaloaken]

so beautiful and peaceful, I had a chance go to Hoi An last summer, it is very great with beautiful street, flower and friendly people