Sunrises C&C Or Advice Please

[jmurphy]

Here are three sunrises I took. Let me know what you think and what would make them better. Thanks.

1:

002 by jasonnmurphy, on Flickr

2:

009-2 by jasonnmurphy, on Flickr

3:

011 by jasonnmurphy, on Flickr

 

[kdeerhake]

I really enjoyed your third one. The only thing that I'm finding odd is the triangle of beach in the bottom right, but otherwise love the colors and composition.

 

[Raian-san]

The lighting on #3 is the best one and the reflection of the water is nice. That's the lighting you want, but that picture it doesn't have any focus point and beside of the sun reflection, nothing else is interesting.

#1 is a bit dark, #2 is yellowish and bright. If you want to shoot a lot of sunset, sunrise, invest in a circular polarizer and some ND filter. It will help reduce the glare from the sun and the ND filter help turn a few f/stops down so you can take it with a shorter shutter speed so it wont' be overexposed like #2. Or avoid taking directly into the sun.

 

[Studio7Four]

1. I like the colors and cloud patterns you've captured in the sky and would make that the focus of this shot. By placing the horizon in the middle, you've split the viewer's attention between sky and ground. In this case I suspect you were trying to show that it is a sunrise over a lake, but with the sun so low there is so little light illuminating the lake that it gets lost, leaving you with a large chunk of dark foreground. The next time you try this shot I would recompose higher, getting more of the sky and none of the lake (leave the strip of mountains).

2. I like that you tried using the vertical orientation to get just the sun and its reflection and eliminate superfluous items. However, with the sun right at the top of the frame it feels cramped - which feels really wrong when you instinctively know that the sun should be surrounded by the vast sky. Shooting directly into the sun is tough, but when the sun and its reflection are all that is shown you really need to nail it. Play with filters as suggested to balance your exposure and knock down the blown out reflections.

3. A decent capture, and you did catch some nice reflections off the water. I agree with kdeerhake that the beach in the lower right is superfluous. I also think that most of the sky isn't particularly impressive (particularly compared with shot 1). I'd suggest looking at this with a non-standard crop. Take some off the bottom (to just remove all the beach) and some off the top (come down to just below the dark cloud on the left, I think you'll keep the bright cloud in the middle). That will keep the reflections in the water and the interesting part of the sky. Yes, it leaves the horizon almost centered, but reflections are one of the times you can break that "rule". Cropping in like this will also make the sailboat a relatively larger element within the frame, as though including it were intentional. As small as it is know, the sailboat appears accidental, almost like it is intruding on your nature shot.

 

[jmurphy]

#2 is yellowish and bright. If you want to shoot a lot of sunset, sunrise, invest in a circular polarizer and some ND filter. It will help reduce the glare from the sun and the ND filter help turn a few f/stops down so you can take it with a shorter shutter speed so it wont' be overexposed like #2. Or avoid taking directly into the sun.

Thanks for the tip on using a filter. I just got a circular polarizer so i'll try it next time i shoot a sunrise.

 

[jmurphy]

3. A decent capture, and you did catch some nice reflections off the water. I agree with kdeerhake that the beach in the lower right is superfluous. I also think that most of the sky isn't particularly impressive (particularly compared with shot 1). I'd suggest looking at this with a non-standard crop. Take some off the bottom (to just remove all the beach) and some off the top (come down to just below the dark cloud on the left, I think you'll keep the bright cloud in the middle). That will keep the reflections in the water and the interesting part of the sky. Yes, it leaves the horizon almost centered, but reflections are one of the times you can break that "rule". Cropping in like this will also make the sailboat a relatively larger element within the frame, as though including it were intentional. As small as it is know, the sailboat appears accidental, almost like it is intruding on your nature shot.

Is this more like you're talking about with the crop?

011c by jasonnmurphy, on Flickr

011 (3)b by jasonnmurphy, on Flickr

 

[Studio7Four]

Yes, that's pretty much what I meant by my crop suggestion. I consider each of these to be much stronger images than the original #3. You've cut out much of the darker, less interesting portions. And by removing the land from the foreground you've made the water feel much more expansive.

I noticed that you cropped to the original aspect ratio. Nothing wrong with that, especially if you're trying to fit it to a standard frame. What I was really suggesting was to crop only from the top and bottom, which would leave it in more of a panoramic aspect ratio. Since you allow editing I took the liberty (nothing done besides cropping):

Now, because of the way the land rises on the right half and creates more shadows, there certainly seems to be a lighter half and a darker half in my crop, so perhaps your tight crop is more appropriate. To me the panoramic aspect ratio conveys a different feel than your tight crop, however, so it's also a question of what you're trying to portray.

Keep shooting, and keep posting! Maine has some absolutely beautiful geography for landscape photography.