Sunset from the lake's shore

crimbfighter · Aug 29, 2013

C&C appreciated. I tried to really focus on composition on this one, asking myself what's appealing in the frame? What's the subject? I think for me, I was trying to capture what the people in the frame are experiencing, rather than me.

70-200 @ 200mm, f/10, 1/500, ISO 100 equivalent, PP in LR5

deeky · Aug 29, 2013

Now that's timing - biker is in just the right place as the couple on the bench are kissing. Nice work!

I find the hotspot right at the bottom of the frame fairly distracting, but a little cropping or cloning would take care of that quick.

FanBoy · Aug 29, 2013

I like the scene, but more simplicity is needed in composition.

The sailboats in the middle ground are very pleasing and nicely spaced. The focus on the couple on the bench minus the biker and lamps would less complicate the composition, if possible.

Nice exposure underneath the sun. With the water reflection in the shot, you might even be able to omit the blinding sun. The eye is drawn to it immediately.

Warhorse · Aug 29, 2013

Someday I would like to take pictures that good.

crimbfighter · Aug 30, 2013

Thanks for the replies, and compliment!

deeky said:
Now that's timing - biker is in just the right place as the couple on the bench are kissing. Nice work!

I find the hotspot right at the bottom of the frame fairly distracting, but a little cropping or cloning would take care of that quick.

I couldn't control the kissing couple, but I did manage to capture the biker where I wanted him. I saw him riding down the breakwater, and sat there like a sniper with my finger on the remote shutter release, waiting to take the shot! :lol:

I hadn't even noticed that hot spot until you pointed it out, but now I see it clear as day. I'll play around with it and see what I come up with. Thanks for the feedback!

FanBoy said:
I like the scene, but more simplicity is needed in composition.

The sailboats in the middle ground are very pleasing and nicely spaced. The focus on the couple on the bench minus the biker and lamps would less complicate the composition, if possible.

Nice exposure underneath the sun. With the water reflection in the shot, you might even be able to omit the blinding sun. The eye is drawn to it immediately.

Thanks for the suggestions, FanBoy. I hadn't really thought about trying to simplify the composition. I played around with it a bit after reading your suggestion. I cloned out the bike, and one of the light poles, but I felt like it was almost too simple, because the couple on the bench were so small in comparison to the rest of the frame. I think your idea has merit, though, and I'll play around with it a bit more. Perhaps in combination with a different crop removing the sun as you suggested.

FanBoy · Aug 30, 2013

crimbfighter said:
FanBoy said:

I like the scene, but more simplicity is needed in composition.

The sailboats in the middle ground are very pleasing and nicely spaced. The focus on the couple on the bench minus the biker and lamps would less complicate the composition, if possible.

Nice exposure underneath the sun. With the water reflection in the shot, you might even be able to omit the blinding sun. The eye is drawn to it immediately.

Click to expand...

Thanks for the suggestions, FanBoy. I hadn't really thought about trying to simplify the composition. I played around with it a bit after reading your suggestion. I cloned out the bike, and one of the light poles, but I felt like it was almost too simple, because the couple on the bench were so small in comparison to the rest of the frame. I think your idea has merit, though, and I'll play around with it a bit more. Perhaps in combination with a different crop removing the sun as you suggested.

Cloning would take time, and I realize that you used your maximum zoom. It's just something to think about. Irregardless, great, warm photo.

cbarnard7 · Aug 30, 2013

This picture is really warm and awesome! Well done! I think this little difference (just cropped in paint over here at work) will help with the hotspot. Maybe straighten the horizon just a tad and I think that's a really awesome pic!

rambler · Aug 30, 2013

In general, I would strongly agree with simplifying compositions, but here the story-telling is pleasing to me. Boats, bike and people on the bench go together nicely with the story of spending leisure time at a beautiful part of the day. You get away with the street lamps because, you have them nicely balanced in the frame. But, take fanboy's suggestion about the "blinding sun" which bothers me in some of my sunsets and sun rise images. Scroll your image up right here, so that the sun is gone. The sky has its color, the reflection is on the water and the big bright distracting glare of the sun itself is gone! Cropping up as suggested got rid of another bright area that only pulled our attention away from what you really wanted us to see, ie. the people and boats. (Crop up, so that just those two small clouds are visible at the top.)

BTW Here is an example of simplifying a composition for a better result. My goal was to capture receding waves rushing back to sea over rocks on a calm morning with only small waves. Before setting up my tripod as I had done on another morning, I spent time watching three different rocks within an area of maybe ten yards. First I looked at the color of the rocks. I looked for a contrast of color,as most were just black. I looked at rocks with seaweed attached and others without. Within that small area, I found several different choices of rock and wave effects both as the waves came in and when they were going back out to sea. How much of the rock did I want visible? Include seaweed, or not? What about focal length? Zoom or wide angle? Did I want to freeze the motion with a fast shutter speed, or blur it with a small aperture. Finally, I narrowed my choice to a whirlpool effect about the size of a soccer ball, that showed up at the edge of a small rock as water rushed back out to sea. So, I zoomed in just on that one small spot, and just included a small edge of the rock along the edge of the frame. I chose a small aperture which meant a slower shutter speed which meant I used continuos shutter mode hoping to capture a look I wanted. The results were a variety of different wave actions and I never caught the exact look of the whirlpool I first saw! Nevertheless, my aim was to simplify the subject matter to a small section of the wide open beach I was standing on. I definitely wanted a view that was narrow in focus and certainly not one of taking in all the wonderful seaside landscape before me. I also discovered later, as I reviewed the photos, that it was best to focus on the exposed rock, because the water was going to be blurred anyway, so it was nice to have the area of wet rock as sharp possible since it was quite prominent and close and wet rock has a nice look.

crimbfighter · Sep 1, 2013

rambler said:
In general, I would strongly agree with simplifying compositions, but here the story-telling is pleasing to me. Boats, bike and people on the bench go together nicely with the story of spending leisure time at a beautiful part of the day. You get away with the street lamps because, you have them nicely balanced in the frame. But, take fanboy's suggestion about the "blinding sun" which bothers me in some of my sunsets and sun rise images. Scroll your image up right here, so that the sun is gone. The sky has its color, the reflection is on the water and the big bright distracting glare of the sun itself is gone! Cropping up as suggested got rid of another bright area that only pulled our attention away from what you really wanted us to see, ie. the people and boats. (Crop up, so that just those two small clouds are visible at the top.)

BTW Here is an example of simplifying a composition for a better result. My goal was to capture receding waves rushing back to sea over rocks on a calm morning with only small waves. Before setting up my tripod as I had done on another morning, I spent time watching three different rocks within an area of maybe ten yards. First I looked at the color of the rocks. I looked for a contrast of color,as most were just black. I looked at rocks with seaweed attached and others without. Within that small area, I found several different choices of rock and wave effects both as the waves came in and when they were going back out to sea. How much of the rock did I want visible? Include seaweed, or not? What about focal length? Zoom or wide angle? Did I want to freeze the motion with a fast shutter speed, or blur it with a small aperture. Finally, I narrowed my choice to a whirlpool effect about the size of a soccer ball, that showed up at the edge of a small rock as water rushed back out to sea. So, I zoomed in just on that one small spot, and just included a small edge of the rock along the edge of the frame. I chose a small aperture which meant a slower shutter speed which meant I used continuos shutter mode hoping to capture a look I wanted. The results were a variety of different wave actions and I never caught the exact look of the whirlpool I first saw! Nevertheless, my aim was to simplify the subject matter to a small section of the wide open beach I was standing on. I definitely wanted a view that was narrow in focus and certainly not one of taking in all the wonderful seaside landscape before me. I also discovered later, as I reviewed the photos, that it was best to focus on the exposed rock, because the water was going to be blurred anyway, so it was nice to have the area of wet rock as sharp possible since it was quite prominent and close and wet rock has a nice look.

Thanks for the suggestions and your own experiences. When I took this photo, I had actually done something similar. I went to this same spot two days earlier, and just sat there, watching the entire sunset without the camera present. I found it afforded me the opportunity to simply watch it, and evaluate what I wanted to capture. That's what ultimately led me to using a telephoto focal length. I wanted it to feel like you were seeing the background in the same perspective as the people on the breakwater.

I also took all the suggestions into account about simplifying the composition. I took a couple days off from looking at the photo, and when I returned, a simple crop made a huge difference. Here's the new crop. I like it much better because it really does simplify things. My eye is now first drawn to the sailboats and far shore line, just like I would be seeing if I were sitting on the breakwater myself, then my eye slowly swims downward to the silhouettes on the breakwater, letting me know that's where the sunset is truly beign watched from. Thanks everyone for the feedback!