A Tiny Sunset

[Dave Blinder]

Not sure that I like the end result here at all. I made an HDR from a single RAW, spend a lot of time removing noise and smoothing out speckles in photoshop so I didn't want to toss it out. Not sure how I feel about the saturation, and I think I'd prefer less blur on the clouds.

Would this have been better with a faster shutter? All comments appreciated.

I've raised overall contrast and saturation, horizon has been rotated slightly. That's about it.

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2532/4177115183_b2b3d93717_o.jpg

ISO 100, f/13, 10mm, 1/10s

[Robert Amoruso]

Dave,

I don't think going for saturation here is a mistake, I like the dynamics its creates. At 1/10 sec you will get cloud blurring. I am OK with that but if you don't want a blur get it up to 1/125 sec.

I feel that having the sun center was not a good choice here. I feel that moving the view right would have off-centered the sun and given you a strong diagonal flow of the clouds from the left to right in the frame. But then again, I am only assuming that not knowing what yu had going on in the right.

[Dave Mills]

Hi Dave, Agree with Robert's points on shutter speed and repositioning the sun. I would also like to see a small amount more on the bottom.

[Roger Clark]

Dave,
To me the dark areas in the clouds do not seem real. Are they, are they an artifact of processing?

Roger

[Roman Kurywczak]

Hi Dave,
Excellent advice given above. I also see what Roger is talking about and my bet is the HDR. I'm also with Dave on more base. Robert's idia of moving/composing in the field is right on and I will offer another option too.....going vertical!....with all the space on the left, all the interest is from the center right.....just composing in that area would make the image stronger compositionally.

[Dave Blinder]

Dave,
To me the dark areas in the clouds do not seem real. Are they, are they an artifact of processing?

Roger

Hi Roger - I didn't manually alter the clouds, a biproduct of the HDR route I used.

[Dave Blinder]

Hi Dave,
Excellent advice given above. I also see what Roger is talking about and my bet is the HDR. I'm also with Dave on more base. Robert's idia of moving/composing in the field is right on and I will offer another option too.....going vertical!....with all the space on the left, all the interest is from the center right.....just composing in that area would make the image stronger compositionally.

Thanks Roman, vertical does sound like an interesting twist here. Unfortunately, I take the lazy approach to most landscape shots and mount the camera to my gimbal head as I'm often taking these shots right after birding...

PS - I'm still trying to get down to Barnegat for Saturday, will let you know. Would be great to meet everyone.