Bosque sunset

[Ron Boisvert]

Canon 20D w/ 70-200 f/4, @200mm handheld
ISO 400, f/14 @ 1/1000, Av, Auto Exposure, +2/3EV

All comments and suggestions for improvement are welcome. Oh yeah, the bottom half of the photo has been cropped off (it was shot as a vertical), and a little bit of lens flare was cloned out. Thanks for looking.

[Gus Cobos]

Hi Ron,
I like the image and capture. The lighting is sweet, and the yellow/orange tones and hues sets the mood and feel over the top...my only suggestion would be to have off centered the sun a bit more to the left side of the frame; its boarder line too close to the center...aside from this, well done...:cool:

[Alfred Forns]

Hi Ron

Sweet and I'm loving the Bosque images .. makes me want to hop on a plane !!

Agree with Gus on having he sun a bit more to he left and if possible a longer image ration .. stopping down to f 22 would have given you a neat sun effect !!! Crop wise I would like seeing a little more foreground Very fine image !!!

Trying to guess location ... maybe at the end of the farm fields?

[Bob Miller]

Hi Gus...Like the image, especially the sunrays. I would crop only a very small amount from the left side

[david cramer]

Very nice tone and layers. I'd agree with shifting the sun a bit.

[Jay Gould]

No need to repeat - I like the image.

Would this have been a good opportunity to use a reverse soft graduated neutral density filter to tone down the sun?

Perhaps you wanted a super bright sun!

[Jeff Cashdollar]

I like the image, wish the sun was not so dominate. I was told once that birds are better framed in the corners in shots like this. On balance, the feel is warm and a nice moment in the life of nature. Maybe 5 minutes later would have blocked more sun maybe not - well done - just my 2 cents.

[Christopher Miller]

Over the top feel on this, Ron! Love the colors and lighting. I'm okay with the sun as is but would tone down the bright line, I'm guessing cloud?, to the left of the sun.

[Ron Boisvert]

As suggested, I cropped a little from the left and added a little to the bottom, though probably not enough on the bottom.
Al, this was shot just north of the Coyote Deck, which is halfway towards the sharp turn at the northernmost point of the farm loop. If I hadn't cut off half the photo, I'm sure you would recognize it. The f/22 suggestion is noted for future reference, thanks a lot. My "Al Forns Tips and Tricks" document continues to grow!!

Jay, absolutely the filter would have helped, except I haven't sprung for any ND or GND filters for my new equipment yet. If I sell some photos soon I will be much more comfortable laying out more money for equipment, but for now, I find it hard to justify, even though I really want to! :eek:

As for the sun's brightness, Al's and Jay's suggestion would have helped a lot. I haven't even shot into the sun for a very long time, and didn't realize how dominant it would be. Perhaps I should have bracketed f stops as I was shooting the birds coming in to roost, so I could have compared results. Sometimes I'm so focussed on the birds, I overlook other aspects of the image. I'm still working on being more aware of everything that's going on.

A big "Thank You" to everyone for the comments and advice. I really appreciate it.

Ron

[Jeff Cashdollar]

Ron, Blocking is a technique that will works well for bright sun, filters are not always the answer and they can be applied in PS to some extent cheaper and with better what if scenarios.

Keep em coming,...

[Ron Boisvert]

Hi Jeff, I am not familiar with the Blocking technique. What is it?