First attempts at sunsets

[jcdeboever]

Shot with CanonS90, hand held, on vacation in Key West Florida. I had fun doing them and look forward to doing some with my D3300 some day soon. Direction welcomed. Tried to stay still as possible, practised breathing technique I read about and it worked. I did not crop any of these as I was working on getting it framed correctly. Post edit was noise reduction only.

Sent from my XT1254 using Tapatalk

 

[tirediron]

Not bad at all! I quite like #1.

 

[k5MOW]

Great work I love number one.

Roger

 

[jcdeboever]

Really? Wow, that is encouraging. I was ready for the slap down... Thank you both!

Sent from my XT1254 using Tapatalk

 

[jcdeboever]

Not bad at all! I quite like #1.

Is there a rule of thumb as to the location of the sun? Normally, when I painted a sunset (only 2), it was located dead center. I compensated for boats and ships and tried to balance but not sure if I got that correct.

Sent from my XT1254 using Tapatalk

 

[Jim Walczak]

Over-all I like these, however I am seeing one consistent mistake...with all 3 images you've essentially split the pictures across the middle with the horizon. I think the color and processing are very well done, however I think it would be to your benefit to take a few minutes and Google "the rule of thirds".

Just my own opinions...

 

[DarkShadow]

Very Nice #1.I like the sailboat to in the distant horizon.

 

[manny212]

Really? Wow, that is encouraging. I was ready for the slap down... Thank you both!

Sent from my XT1254 using Tapatalk

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAH !!! TOO FUNNY !!! . Nice job !

 

[Peeb]

 

[jcdeboever]

Over-all I like these, however I am seeing one consistent mistake...with all 3 images you've essentially split the pictures across the middle with the horizon. I think the color and processing are very well done, however I think it would be to your benefit to take a few minutes and Google "the rule of thirds".

Just my own opinions...

Thank you Jim.

I understand the rule but when framing (and post), placing the sunset in one of the two planes made it look unbalanced, a fake "Rothko look". I found the sky and water interesting so I placed it in the middle. I used silhouettes the create further interest and balance. I have others taken before and after these exploring horizon on different planes and they look all wrong. Additionally, there were crap loads of people at both spots, good thing I am pretty tall...

I am curious to what you think is correct. I am open to doing it better.

Sent from my XT1254 using Tapatalk

 

[Derrel]

Over-all I like these, however I am seeing one consistent mistake...with all 3 images you've essentially split the pictures across the middle with the horizon. I think the color and processing are very well done, however I think it would be to your benefit to take a few minutes and Google "the rule of thirds".

Just my own opinions...

I think that cropping off the top 20 to 25% of the frame height on shot #1 makes for a much stronger composition, both due to the change it brings to the horizon, but also in the way it creates a more horizontal, less square-ish aspect ratio.

 

[jcdeboever]

Over-all I like these, however I am seeing one consistent mistake...with all 3 images you've essentially split the pictures across the middle with the horizon. I think the color and processing are very well done, however I think it would be to your benefit to take a few minutes and Google "the rule of thirds".

Just my own opinions...

I think that cropping off the top 20 to 25% of the frame height on shot #1 makes for a much stronger composition, both due to the change it brings to the horizon, but also in the way it creates a more horizontal, less square-ish aspect ratio.

Thanks Derrel. How's this?

Sent from my XT1254 using Tapatalk

 

[Jim Walczak]

Over-all I like these, however I am seeing one consistent mistake...with all 3 images you've essentially split the pictures across the middle with the horizon. I think the color and processing are very well done, however I think it would be to your benefit to take a few minutes and Google "the rule of thirds".

Just my own opinions...

Thank you Jim.

I understand the rule but when framing (and post), placing the sunset in one of the two planes made it look unbalanced, a fake "Rothko look". I found the sky and water interesting so I placed it in the middle. I used silhouettes the create further interest and balance. I have others taken before and after these exploring horizon on different planes and they look all wrong. Additionally, there were crap loads of people at both spots, good thing I am pretty tall...

I am curious to what you think is correct. I am open to doing it better.

Sent from my XT1254 using Tapatalk

Well...I think the balance aspect is more a matter of your foreground subjects than the sunset itself. Using image #1 as an example, yes, if you were to just crop "a little off the top", then I suspect the image would indeed look unbalanced as you'd have quite a bit of water up front in the foreground. I think the solution there would have been too zoom in closer to the jetski's, perhaps isolate a few of them and have the sunset itself in the upper third of the image.

I've taken the liberty of doing a quick and dirty Photoshop adjustment to better illustrate what I mean here...



I cropped the image down (using a 4 x 6 ratio) and I moved the jetski's down a little in the foreground and cloned a bit of the water back in to fill the gap...the cloning is rather sloppy, but it should illustrate the point. I suspect that if you had of zoomed in just a bit and maybe adjusted your angle a little, you could have got this same perspective in camera (give or take the crowd...that's always a pain, LOL).

In an odd way, it's almost like one of those paradigm tests you might encounter in Psyc 101 (like the picture where you might see either a young woman or an old hag), although artistically I believe the term is called "negative space", LOL!. Essentially you have two central subjects competing for dominance in your images...the sunset and whatever is in the foreground. In such a case, it's usually a good idea to ask yourself "what's this image about?" then isolate the subject and eliminate anything that doesn't contribute to the composition. Using this same image as an example, if the image was about the sunset, then you might have tried using a longer lens (200 - 300mm) and got more of the sunset and sky in the image...



This is an extreme crop of the same image...at this crop, it's too low rez to be effective, however again it should demonstrate the point. Had you of framed the image like this, there would be no question the image was about the sunset. Because you have so many foreground elements in the image however (all 3 images in fact), balance becomes an issue. There's nothing wrong with a good, isolated sunset, however when you choose to include something in the foreground, generally speaking, the sunset becomes more about the negative space that supports the composition as a whole...I hope that makes sense.

I will say that for a "first attempt", I do think you're off to a smashing start...looks like you have a VERY lovely area there to work with. I think it you put a little more thought into the framing and the composition aspect of the images, you could have some work there that's truly sensational!

Okies...hope that helps!

 

[astroNikon]

Op doesn't have on his profile to allow Editing or Not.
I was going to do some until I saw there was no indication. Not sure you are allowed to do that ... OP should specify.

 

[Derrel]

I like Jim's cropped image in post #13 quite a bit. Eliminating the one jet skier off the right edge helped a good deal.