Sunset/sunrise in the Gulf of Mexico

[hungt23]

I took a cruise from Houston to Cozumel last week and got these sunset/sunrise pictures. Please let me know how I can make them better. Thank you.
You are welcome to edit these anyway you like.

 

[Kit]

Your horizons, they are all tilted. This can make or break images like these.

 

[hungt23]

Wow, you got good eyes. I didn't even notice. Thank you.

 

[swishbrade]

great place to have a holiday. Were you on a fishing trip?

 

[hungt23]

No, we took a seven-day cruise from Houston to Cozumel (Mexico), Roatan (Honduras), and Progresso (Mexico).

 

[hungt23]

I had to take out two of the pictures since I read somewhere that you suppose to have only one picture per thread per week. Hopefully I took out the correct ones.

 

[eikin]

I had to take out two of the pictures since I read somewhere that you suppose to have only one picture per thread per week. Hopefully I took out the correct ones.

Yes it's 1 image per week for critique request http://www.clubsnap.com/forums/showthread.php?t=273376

Kit is right in pointing out that horizon line can make or break pictures like this. If you find it difficult to spot the error, you can see if your post processing software allow you to impose some guiding lines on your picture when you edit the picture. Otherwise, I think this is well taken in terms of the balanced composition and exposure, though there seems to be a lack in the quality of the sharpness and colour, might be due to some software compression when you shrink the image for posting.

 

[hungt23]

Yes it's 1 image per week for critique request http://www.clubsnap.com/forums/showthread.php?t=273376

Kit is right in pointing out that horizon line can make or break pictures like this. If you find it difficult to spot the error, you can see if your post processing software allow you to impose some guiding lines on your picture when you edit the picture. Otherwise, I think this is well taken in terms of the balanced composition and exposure, though there seems to be a lack in the quality of the sharpness and colour, might be due to some software compression when you shrink the image for posting.

I had to shrink the image down from a 2 meg file since you cannot post large pictures.
Thank you very much for your comments.:thumbsup:

 

[calebk]

I took the liberty to do some minor editing of your photo

Before:

After:

What I did was firstly to correct your tilted horizon. I subsequently added a Levels layer in Photoshop, then brought the shadows and midtones down. This makes the picture slightly darker, and subtly boosts the strength of the sunrise's hues.

Finally, I added some light vignetting at the corners.

I am slightly in conflict with myself as to whether the foreground should retain some detail, or go completely black, but I decided to bring down the shadow values such that it was rendered black, because the foreground offers little in terms of interesting detail, but that's just my take.