A few photos for critique from Florida

[Hiebs915]

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

 

[woodyracing]

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]

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]

#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]

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]

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

---Chris

 

[woodyracing]

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]

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

 

[Hiebs915]

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]

#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]

#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]

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]

Last one is my favorite great shot!

 

[woodyracing]

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!

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.