A few photos for critique from Florida

Hiebs915 · Feb 12, 2012

Hey guys, I took these photos while in Florida studying carbonate sediments. What do you think?

woodyracing · Feb 12, 2012

I really like the last one. The second one would have been better if the one boat hadn't been there, but I realize you can't really control that lol. The thing that bugs me about the first one is that one head/beak crossing the horizon.

Hiebs915 · Feb 12, 2012

Thanks for the feedback! I could probably photoshop out the boat and fix the birds head. Maybe I'll give it a go sometime.

cgipson1 · Feb 12, 2012

#1.. birds look soft.. although that might be due to compression depending on how you posted them. The horizon crossing so close to the birds is distracting.. as mentioned

#2.. Foregrounds shadows have lost all detail... would have been a good candidate for HDR! as it is.. maybe a vertical crop on the sunset (from top of photo, and almost to the dock) might save something. Just too much dark foreground.

#3 Nice shot.. but again the foreground is just way to dark. Again.. maybe a vertical crop just to the bottom of the rocks, with the rock on the right ROTs line.

FireRescueFL · Feb 12, 2012

Newb opinion:

1.) I'd like to see more DoF. The shot is nice but just personal opinion.

2.) The dock at the bottom is more distracting to me than the boat. Before I read the other comments, my first thoughts were that I would have taken the hot tighter to get past that dock and focused in more on the boat and the sun.

3.) You exposed for the sun which gave beautiful colors at the expense of have a lot of underexposed foreground. I'm too new to photography to have any advice for getting around this other than simply cropping out the underexposed parts or turning their exposure up in PP.

Overall, I like the shots. Number 2 is my favorite.

---Chris

FireRescueFL · Feb 12, 2012

Looks like cgipson1 beat me to the punch! HDR would have been perfect.

---Chris

woodyracing · Feb 12, 2012

FireRescueFL said:
2.) The dock at the bottom is more distracting to me than the boat. Before I read the other comments, my first thoughts were that I would have taken the hot tighter to get past that dock and focused in more on the boat and the sun.

I'm probably going to be in the minority here, but I actually liked the dock in the shot, kinda gives the feeling of being there, it's peaceful, I feel like I just spent the day off on the lake just by looking at it and the lack of detail keeps it at that feeling without taking the focus off of the scene too much. That's the way my brain sees it, certainly not a technical or creative viewpoint

APHPHOTO · Feb 12, 2012

I think the boat would have been nice as a silloette against the sunset.

Hiebs915 · Feb 12, 2012

Thanks for the feedback guys!

Now that I look at the first, I see the problem with the horizon. I have a few others of the same shot, maybe I'll post different versions.

As for the middle picture, I took that with the Nikon AW100. I couldn't really adjust for an HDR, oh well.

I did expose for the sunset in the third photo but had no graduated neutral density filter. Should have tried HDR. I only have CS5 and I'm not good with HDR.

Thanks again though for all the feedback. I will remember these things next time I'm out!

RichardsTPF · Feb 12, 2012

#1: The birds are soft. My eyes keep looking at the bright wood pole. The horizon crossing the head is distracting. A different angle and a tight crop might help.
#2: I have no problem with boat. Agree with Charlie.
#3: HDR.
Both#2 &#3 are underexposed.
Question here, Is it ok to filling some flash at foreground in #3? I assume the rock is not too far away.

cgipson1 · Feb 12, 2012

RichardsTPF said:
#1: The birds are soft. My eyes keep looking at the bright wood pole. The horizon crossing the head is distracting. A different angle and a tight crop might help.
#2: I have no problem with boat. Agree with Charlie.
#3: HDR.
Both#2 &#3 are underexposed.
Question here, Is it ok to filling some flash at foreground in #3? I assume the rock is not too far away.

Actually ... properly executed, a flash on the foreground would have worked well.

cgipson1 · Feb 12, 2012

woodyracing said:
I'm probably going to be in the minority here, but I actually liked the dock in the shot, kinda gives the feeling of being there, it's peaceful, I feel like I just spent the day off on the lake just by looking at it and the lack of detail keeps it at that feeling without taking the focus off of the scene too much. That's the way my brain sees it, certainly not a technical or creative viewpoint

What Dock? You can't see it! lol!

er111a · Feb 12, 2012

Last one is my favorite

great shot!

woodyracing · Feb 12, 2012

cgipson1 said:
woodyracing said:

I'm probably going to be in the minority here, but I actually liked the dock in the shot, kinda gives the feeling of being there, it's peaceful, I feel like I just spent the day off on the lake just by looking at it and the lack of detail keeps it at that feeling without taking the focus off of the scene too much. That's the way my brain sees it, certainly not a technical or creative viewpoint

Click to expand...

What Dock? You can't see it! lol!

lol I still like it, if you could see the details of the dock, it would be distracting and if none of it was in the shot, it wouldn't have the same feeling. I'm not saying it's correct or the best shot I've ever seen, just saying that I, personally, like it.