Sunset


gkw12345

New Member
Aug 10, 2009
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1. In what area is critique to be sought?

Composition, Post Processing and Overall Feel

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

To capture a decent sunset shot.

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


~7pm, punggol beach. iso 160 @ f/13

4. What the critique seeker personally thinks of the picture

Think that the rocks are a nice addition which leads the eyes to the sun and that overall, it looks rather decent.

5712460825_6c62843470_b.jpg
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I was close to passing it off as a snapshot as the motion of the waters were a little how to say... "off-technique". But on reflection, I do like the 'texture' of the water as it reminds me of the brush strokes on oil paintings. I have seen comments where certain people advocate using ND for the smoothed water effect but while there is certainly an appeal with that approach, I have no personal preference over the other. It is all up to the artist's intent.

Needs a dose of PS. Sharpen, Vibrance + Saturation, Photo filter (warm), slight dodging of reflection.

PS. the water "texture" looks okay in this web file size, but might show it's ugly side in the original high res file. If this is the technique you want to achieve some study might be required.

Sunset111.jpg
 

I find the composition a little distracting in a sense. There are just too many rocks all over the place to form any leading into the sun. That, add the lack of details in the rocks as well as the presence of the waves somehow takes away from this picture.

I seriously do not know how to recompose this picture. But one of the things you need to watch out for is also focusing. It seems that the focus is on the rock closest to the right of the frame. But tree line and chimmeys in the distance are not sharp and seems out of focus. Maybe you should think about using hyperfocal distance focusing here.

Personally, I like to shoot a sunrise/sunset when the sun is slightly under the horizon. I like the colors there a lot more. But that is personal.
 

I have been thinking through this one and was really at a lost how it can be better.
DD123 have said it much much better than I can think of.

Just like to add a few things.
Some people may like to disagree to this but applying the simple "rules of third" here will help a lot. It is just natural for a nice photo to be when using this rule for composition. Only "break it" if there is a good reason.

When the sun is up and clear from the horizon, you will have a photo with things in it backlighted and hence dark shadows and silhouette. So, when capturing such an image, you have to bear it in mind when composing your photo to use it to your advantage and not disadvantage.