Sunset at Plakas Castle in Milos, Greece

[andresleon]

This is an exposure blending of two different images.

Canon 5D S on tripod
Canon 15-35mm f/2.8 II at 16mm
f/2.8
ISO 100
no flash fired

Thanks for your comments and suggestions!

[Rachel Hollander]

Hi Andres - I like this a lot. It's a nice scene and you handled the exposure well. I might have stopped down to try to get a bit of a sunburst. There's what looks like a path on a diagonal just in from the left edge. I find it drawing my eye and might try toning it down slightly.

TFS,
Rachel

[Don Railton]

Hi Andres

I too like the scene, I think this could have been a wonderful image but I think your blending has let you down a little... I see halos over the domes and i think the colour of the Church is blotchy, I assume it was not like this. I also think the distant hills mid screen LHS are too dark.. My suggestion (and its only what I would do..) is to shoot scenes like this just after the sun has dropped below the horizon. The required dynamic range you have to cover will drop dramatically and it will be relatively easy to get an exposure that will render true over all the frame.. I might also ask you to ask yourself "what does the sun add??" To me its just a hot orange ball that catches your eye and not allowing it to wander around the image, I dont think it adds much but you are the author, not me... So Andres, its not for me to tell you what to do, only what I would do, and I hope you dont mind what I say...

Best regards

DON

[andresleon]

Thank you, Rachel and Don, for your comments and suggestions. Don, I don't mind receiving solid and objective constructive criticism at all. That's why I post images in this group, I feel I always get excellent feedback based on experience and legitimate desire to help. I feel the same way that my blending was less than perfect here. The church did look a little off and blotchy even from RAW, but I think the blending made it worse. I also thought the sun would have helped, but as Rachel said, i should have used a much smaller aperture to get the sunbursts.

I have to be willing to take these comments and suggestions and make improvements in my technique, during the shoot and post, if I ever want to get better at this. Thanks again!

[dankearl]

I like it also, it needs a bit of work, the blending has obvious flaws and the sun distortion is pretty bad but overall, it is interesting.
This would be a hit on 500px....

[andresleon]

This would be a hit on 500px....

LOL... Dan, I'm not sure if that's a compliment or not ;)

[Don Lacy]

Hi Andres, Love the comp and the intent but unfortunately the execution let you down when it came to the post processing luckily you still have the Raws and as you get better at hand blending you can always re visit it, the image will work with the right post processing. Also if you would have waited until the sun was at the horizon you would have gotten a beautiful sunstar as an added element to the image.

[Andrew McLachlan]

Hi Andres, some really good suggestions above to re-visit and re-process the RAW files for this scene...the first thing I noticed was the distortion, but that is an easy fix as is the sun distortion Dan mentions... if time permits in future situations it is always best to create images such as this and then wait for the sun to hit the horizon as Don L suggested, and then wait for the sun to sink below the horizon as Don R mentions...that way you can pick the versions you like best which will likely be the two latter ones :)