Malibu sunset

[Kerry Perkins]

Captured at Leo Carillo beach, just north of Malibu. Used two graduated ND filters in LR2, one for the sky and one for the beach.

50D, 28-135mm@28mm
f/5.6@1/250sec, ISO 400 WB 5100K
Handheld

[Dave Mills]

Hi Kerry, Nice exposure with good use of the GND. The line in the sand acts as a leading line taking you out to a pretty sunset. Not sure what the object is in the distance but could be a boat. If it was a boat and was moving toward you I might have waited until it cleared the rocks to see all of it. Lot of what if's!
The last thing I would do is crop some of the sky off the top....

[Roman Kurywczak]

Hey Kerry,
Classic example of why I recommend carrying the grads instead of using the filters......here the tonal range was just too great to handle the contrast between the bright sun and get the FG effectively. While the split ND in the field could have been place on the diagonal or even stacking 2 with different orientation. Another option if you want to spend money (since you live close to water and want to do seascapes) is the Darryl Benson Reverse Grad ND; http://www.singh-ray.com/reversegrads.html very effective on taming just such a sitiuation. I think you may be better off just trying to do a bunch of levels layers or even try Robert's tutorial on the reverse S-curve.....to knock down some contrast first....then going in a tweaking a few layers.....for my tastes a bit brighter FG and more definition in the clouds will make this work nicely! If you are really adventurous and want to give us a whack at it....post an unprocessed but convertied tiff....we can see what we can come up with to give you a few ideas!

[Robert Amoruso]

That is a cool filter Roman.

Kerry, I agree with Roman's recommendations here.

[Dan Wolin]

Nice image Kerry,

I would agree with the comments so far. I would also like to see the boat or lighthouse? shot from a little lower
perspective so it is not split by the horizon. Nice sky colors!