The Sunsets

Zhar_Ptitca · Jul 24, 2016

The first picture was taken in Riga, Latvia and is completely unedited. No filters were used during the shoot. Nikon D5100 - Auto - Nikon DX AF - S 18 - 55 mm

The second one was taken on Hvar, Croatia. Same lens, same settings but corrected levels in Photoshop.

WesternGuy · Jul 24, 2016

My thoughts for what it's worth (FWIW) (please number your images - makes reference to them easier) Question - are these raw images?

The first one - I think you could probably do a lot with this one with some judicious post-processing (PP). I think there are colours in the clouds that would be revealed by some PP. I like the composition except for the fact that the horizon line is right in the middle of the image. This is not usually something you want to do because it divides the image in half and the viewer may not know which half is more important. Check the rule of thirds for some thoughts on placing horizons in images.

The second one - I like this image, my only concerns are that the sun is placed to far to the right and to low in the image. I would have placed it at the right, lower thirds position, I would also have tried my best to get rid of the jet trails in the sky as they are distracting. I might have used Curves instead of Levels as Curves gives you more capability to process the elements in an image.

WesternGuy

Zhar_Ptitca · Jul 25, 2016

WesternGuy said:
My thoughts for what it's worth (FWIW) (please number your images - makes reference to them easier) Question - are these raw images?

The first one - I think you could probably do a lot with this one with some judicious post-processing (PP). I think there are colours in the clouds that would be revealed by some PP. I like the composition except for the fact that the horizon line is right in the middle of the image. This is not usually something you want to do because it divides the image in half and the viewer may not know which half is more important. Check the rule of thirds for some thoughts on placing horizons in images.

The second one - I like this image, my only concerns are that the sun is placed to far to the right and to low in the image. I would have placed it at the right, lower thirds position, I would also have tried my best to get rid of the jet trails in the sky as they are distracting. I might have used Curves instead of Levels as Curves gives you more capability to process the elements in an image.

WesternGuy

Thank you for your advice!

The first image - it is completely unaltered. While I am aware of the rule of thirds, I purposely tried to set the horizon in the middle of the image. I believe I wanted to create some sort of 'mirror image' illusion, something I have been into for a while now when it comes to the compositions that involve water. I tried to play with it in Photoshop for a while and this is the other version I came up with, according to the Rule of Thirds. I also tried to make the clouds pop out a bit more

The second image - I tried to take an angle that would not involve streetlights in the picture. This is a slightly cut version, because no matter how far I crawled out in the bushes, there would always be a streetlight in the way. But I see what you mean