The golden hour this morning

[k5MOW]

Hello all

Went out early this morning for the golden hour. One hour after sunrise.
What do you all think

Shutter speed 1/640
F Stop F 4
ISO 500
Focal length 55mm

 

[beachrat]

There's no central subject,and my eye isn't drawn to anything. or something like that.
I like it.
It's relaxing to me.

 

[soufiej]

Agree with the above. You must have a reason for taking a photograph. Otherwise, it's still just a snapshot. Doesn't matter what time of day it was taken.

It's very possible the subject looked interesting to you in the real world of standing in the spot where you took the shot. There are plenty of subjects which look interesting in person and yet do not translate well when they are confined to a frame.

There are several reasons for this; first, dynamic range perceived by your eye/mind cognition doesn't always translate into an interesting photo due to the limitations of a digital camera.

Often, the subject you put in the frame has no context. What looks good in the whole of the scene you are viewing does not translate into an interesting subject when all the rest has been removed.

If you were interested in the fog rising off the water, it gets lost in the intrusive foreground. Nothing in the shot says. "Woah! cool frickin' fog!"

Technically, I can't see a reason for the higher ISO or the shutter speed.

You have the major line of the photo running through the center of the image. That's acceptable if it works for the image. IMO it doesn't work here. Use lines and patterns to direct the viewer's eye to other areas of the photo they can explore at their leisure. The more the viewer's eye moves around to find something new and interesting, the better your photo in most cases.

A personal thing for me, your shot has been taken from a standing position. How many shots do you suppose get taken from a standing position?

Too many, IMO.

Change your perspective and you'll adjust our interest in your image simply because we see so many photos taken from a standing position. We want to see stuff we normally don't. Or, at least generic stuff from an unusual perspective.

 

[kundalini]

A swing and a miss. Don't worry, we all have these.

The golden hour is a very short and fleeting time for photography, approximately fifteen minutes on either side of sunrise or sunset. Unless the sun is the subject of the photo during this "golden hour", a good rule of thumb is to have the scene lit by indirect light only.

Your photo shows some very harsh sunlight coming across left to right. The sky is a complete washout, read "no drama". As already mention, the scene..... no, the framing is quite uninspired. The horizon is basically centered on the page, which is not helping. Any reason you left the guardrail in the lower left corner? Lastly, f/4 was probably the wrong aperture for this. Next time try something like f/8 at a much longer shutter speed.

 

[k5MOW]

Thank you all for the great comments. I will take and try to apply every comment mentioned here. This is how we learn from our mistakes. Again thanks a lot.

Roger

 

[JoeW]

I would crop this photo to take out most of the sky and the bushes on the far right. The sky doesn't do anything for us, the bushes are a distraction. OTOH, the mist on the water, the reflection....that's the dessert in this photo so you as the artist should direct our eye to it by removing the distractions.

 

[soufiej]

I would crop this photo to take out most of the sky and the bushes on the far right. The sky doesn't do anything for us, the bushes are a distraction. OTOH, the mist on the water, the reflection....that's the dessert in this photo so you as the artist should direct our eye to it by removing the distractions.

Get a different perspective on this shot, do a crop.

Use your editing software and set a few image ratios at random. Allow the editor to suggest several crops based on it's algorhythms for each ratio. Experiment with different crops and different ratios.

Try moving to portrait setting just to see what you might try next time.

If you care to, use your editor to increase the saturation of the sky and water. Increase its clarity/luminance.

 

[satman40]

Try this about an hour after sunset, you should find the light more reflective on the water, and even some clouds in the sky.

Look for the reflection of light, change your angles, and let the still water show the reflections, of the trees and the yellow flowers..

If the sky is not interesting shoot the water, and the reflections on it.

My thoughts..