Lake Michigan sunsets

twohearted · May 14, 2014

First attempt at capturing sunsets. I know there's not a whole lot in these pictures to play with as far as composition, just water and sky and shoreline, so I had to settle for working the rule of thirds and try to make them interesting by emphasizing color and texture of the water, etc.

C&C always welcome.

mmaria · May 15, 2014

- they're actually nice but
- they are way over saturated
- why choose this crop?
- play a bit with them in your editing software, bring down that saturation

sscarmack · May 15, 2014

Agreed with the above, way too saturated and crops seem 'off'.

Very nice shots though, and awesome sunset.

twohearted · May 15, 2014

Thanks for the feedback! I'm getting the message that I am chronically over-saturating, and I will bring that down in the next edit. My daughter (age 12) watched as I edited these, and she thought they were over-saturated, too, but I held out because I liked all the color. I will listen to her next time.

As far as the crop, I'm hearing that this one isn't working. I cropped them as I did because I had, just earlier that evening, been sitting in an introductory photography class in which the instructor was criticizing another student's sunset photos for having the horizon dead-center (vertically) in the frame. His advice was, in pictures that have just sky and water, decide which one is contributing more to the photo and show more of it. That was what I was trying to do with my crops. Also, in the third photo, I liked the irregular shoreline leading my eye out of the frame. Could either (or both) of you give me some suggestions as to how you'd change the cropping to make it better? My photos are OK to edit, if you felt like showing me rather than telling.

Thanks again for the feedback (and the compliments). I'm at work now so I won't be able to do any editing until later this evening, but I will play around with them some more and post my edits.

Virgil · May 15, 2014

If at all possible keep the horizons level.. Dont get too hung up on "dead center crops", there are times when shooting water and reflections that center crops are perfectly acceptable..

twohearted · May 15, 2014

Thanks for that advice Virgil--I didn't even notice before that my horizon lines weren't level. I will fix that in my next edit. I have a level on my tripod, too, so I have no excuse!

vintagesnaps · May 15, 2014

Since they're all really wide/pano shots, I'd think about how you're using space, would any of them look better with a little less space horizontally? would that bring the viewer more into seeing what you want them to see?

In the second one there's a little vertical line of clouds in the center, but I didn't even see that at first. The photo is so wide all I saw was a lot of yellow and missed that subtle but interesting little pattern, which is what helps make the photo unique I think.

If you want a lot of color, maybe think about subjects that would be colorful to photograph (flowers? a festival/carnival?). Some things in nature are often more subtle in color, depends on the time of day and how sunny it is, etc. but you probably don't want to take it to the point of no longer being realistic.

twohearted · May 15, 2014

Better?

agp · May 16, 2014

I think they're still too saturated...

twohearted · May 16, 2014

Hmm....I'm not sure what to do then. I'm editing on Canon Digitial Photo Professional, and I had bumped the saturation up to +1 or +2 the first time I edited them. When I got feedback saying they were too saturated, I brought the saturation back to 0 on all of them. On the ones in which I'd tweaked the color curves, I went in and moved them back to where they had been before the first edit as well. Unless I'm misunderstanding how the editing software works (which is possible), that would mean that the saturation in the photos now is the same as it was before I edited them at all. Is it possible for the camera to over-saturate? I was shooting in RAW, and my understanding was that, in that mode, the camera records exactly what it "sees" and doesn't do anything to that data.
Now I'm confused...

How about the cropping? Is that any better?

I do see that my horizons still need leveling...I'll fix that next time around.

PinkDoor · May 16, 2014

I love them all!! Looks exactly how I remember those beautifully sunsets! You are making me want to take a drive up North this summer!

Nice job!

Msteelio91 · May 16, 2014

twohearted said:
Hmm....I'm not sure what to do then. I'm editing on Canon Digitial Photo Professional, and I had bumped the saturation up to +1 or +2 the first time I edited them. When I got feedback saying they were too saturated, I brought the saturation back to 0 on all of them. On the ones in which I'd tweaked the color curves, I went in and moved them back to where they had been before the first edit as well. Unless I'm misunderstanding how the editing software works (which is possible), that would mean that the saturation in the photos now is the same as it was before I edited them at all. Is it possible for the camera to over-saturate? I was shooting in RAW, and my understanding was that, in that mode, the camera records exactly what it "sees" and doesn't do anything to that data.
Now I'm confused...

How about the cropping? Is that any better?

I do see that my horizons still need leveling...I'll fix that next time around.

Something seems odd.. at first I also thought saturation was to blame but the tones seem off. Perhaps check your WB? Were you using any filters?

twohearted · May 16, 2014

PinkDoor, thanks for the kind words! I would really miss the Lake Michigan sunsets if I ever moved away - you should come up and take some photos this summer.

Msteelio91 - I was using a circular polarizing filter -- could that be to blame? I'd had it on earlier in the day, and thought I'd try it for the sunsets too, but maybe that's not a good idea...? As for white balance, I've always done what was recommended in Understanding Exposure by Bryan Peterson and set it on "Cloudy" and left it there. I forget now why he recommends that, but it has usually worked out well.

Msteelio91 · May 16, 2014

That could definitely be part of it, the filter not so much. What software are you using? Try adjusting the WB and playing around with the colors. Also try putting your WB on "auto" just to compare results.