My first decent sunrise shot - C&C please

4thirds_dude · Mar 2, 2009

As the title of this thread says, this is the first sunrise shot that I've been happy with in a long time. The sky coloring was great and I just couldn't pass it up.

Unfortunately, my dSLR was at home and all I had with me were my Canon P&S and my OM-1 film SLR (film not processed yet). Very minimal post processing here, including small levels adjustments, saturation, and noise reduction. So, without further ado...

Let me know what you think! Any critiques are very welcome, as I love these type shots and would really like to get one just "perfect" (if there is such a thing, haha)

davev · Mar 3, 2009

For me, it's just to dark.
The shoreline is gone, I don't know what's there, or if I should care about it.
If you're trying to show off the colors in the sky, then the sun, and much of the blue part of the sky is not needed.
Although the colors are nice, there isn't enough of any thing else going on in the shot to make me stay and view it longer.

rein · Mar 3, 2009

its nice shot, but something just doenst work right for me, i think maybe its the reflections on the water, i can see it but i cant see what was being refelected.

it's a nice capture from a p&s, maybe a lil cropping woulddo the trick

kanmai · Mar 3, 2009

Nice work..

4thirds_dude · Mar 4, 2009

davev said:
For me, it's just to dark.
The shoreline is gone, I don't know what's there, or if I should care about it.
If you're trying to show off the colors in the sky, then the sun, and much of the blue part of the sky is not needed.

I agree that the shoreline is dark, which was my intent. I wanted to show off the reflection in the water and the sky colors only, so I exposed for those areas only.

Do you think it would have been better to capture the sky area only, rather than the image as it stands presently?

Although the colors are nice, there isn't enough of any thing else going on in the shot to make me stay and view it longer.

My goal for this shot was to show off the colors and the general serene mood when I made this image. Just out of curiosity, in this type of image what else "going on" might have held your attention a bit longer? Thanks for taking the time to give your feedback and analysis on this image -- it's really helpful so I can continue to improve.

4thirds_dude · Mar 4, 2009

rein said:
its nice shot, but something just doenst work right for me, i think maybe its the reflections on the water, i can see it but i cant see what was being refelected.

it's a nice capture from a p&s, maybe a lil cropping woulddo the trick

Thanks for the feedback! I appreciate you taking the time.

As to the reflections, I had intentionally underexposed the shoreline area because I wanted the focus to be on the sky and water colors. The reflection was somewhat unavoidable.

When you mentioned cropping, did you mean perhaps a square crop to show only the sky?

rein · Mar 4, 2009

4thirds_dude said:
Thanks for the feedback! I appreciate you taking the time.

As to the reflections, I had intentionally underexposed the shoreline area because I wanted the focus to be on the sky and water colors. The reflection was somewhat unavoidable.

When you mentioned cropping, did you mean perhaps a square crop to show only the sky?

yes, removing the blue part would be good like what dave said

sephira · Mar 4, 2009

I rather like the reflection in the water. It's a very nice shot! To me, I wouldn't want to see the shoreline because it would be distracting. The fact that it's dark helps to draw the eye to the beautiful colors of the sunset instead of the shore. :wink:

davev · Mar 4, 2009

4thirds_dude said:
I agree that the shoreline is dark, which was my intent. I wanted to show off the reflection in the water and the sky colors only, so I exposed for those areas only.

Do you think it would have been better to capture the sky area only, rather than the image as it stands presently?

My goal for this shot was to show off the colors and the general serene mood when I made this image. Just out of curiosity, in this type of image what else "going on" might have held your attention a bit longer? Thanks for taking the time to give your feedback and analysis on this image -- it's really helpful so I can continue to improve.

I guess that's my point, other than the colors, what else is there to see in the shot?
Don't get me wrong, I like a colorful sky, but I want something else in the shot other than the colors. i want you to look around and see what the colors are doing to the surroundings, how it changes the look of a common place or building.

Maybe this shot of Split Rock lighthouse will show what I mean.

Sometimes just the shoreline with just some trees helps out the shot.

I'm not trying to show you up here. I'm just showing you a couple of shots that I think can show you what I mean, better than what I can type.

4thirds_dude · Mar 4, 2009

davev said:
I'm not trying to show you up here. I'm just showing you a couple of shots that I think can show you what I mean, better than what I can type.

No worries at all. I'm actually glad you put those up to explain. :thumbup: I'm more of a visual person. Wish we had locations like that around here. I'd love to shoot that sunrise at a more visually interesting place.

Unfortunately the only place high enough to shoot from around me was a hill overlooking a dam and the college aquatics center, which is far from interesting really. That's why I silhouetted out the shoreline (it's boring! haha). :lol:

Either way, point taken. This was an impromptu shot, but I'll plan a better location next time. And bring my dSLR!

Flower Child · Mar 5, 2009

i actually really like your shot, 4thirds dude. its just says to me what a beautiful mountain morning. the black land makes the sky stand out just that much more. DONT CHANGE IT

Dagwood56 · Mar 5, 2009

I like the shot. The fact that the shoreline is blackened really doesn't bother me. The only thing I might have chosen to do, would be to show more of the blue sky in the water reflection than in the sky itself. The shot might have had a bit more impact that way.

Al-Wazeer · Mar 5, 2009

in my opinion, the photo is nice just like that. It doesn't need anything to be changed

4thirds_dude · Mar 6, 2009

Thanks very much, all of you! This is the first sunrise photo I've taken that I was remotely happy with. Still, everything is a learning experience. I can still tweak it a bit, since I naturally kept the original. I'll see what happens if I enhance the reflection a little bit.