Downtown Sydney

[Tom Redd]

This scene presented itself late one night while in Sydney.

D300
18-200 @35mm
f8
2.5 sec exposure

[Dave Mills]

Hi Tom, I feel you handled the image well technically. There is alot of information in this image which is having a tendancy of taking away from the overall. There is a story (the couple in the lower left) that is being overshadowed by the bright street light,tree trunk and the lit church pulling the viewer to the right. The cut tree on that side is not helping either.
I have found over the years that generally the simpler the image is very often the strongest. In this case you attempted to get the whole area in and diminished the strength of all the components...

[Roman Kurywczak]

Hey Tom,
Fantastic job on the exposure! I have to agree with Dave though......I think a vert......showing a base for them and just the main buildings to the left of the tre and light......would have been a stronger comp. I still think this was very well done......just a bit too much going on.

[Tom Redd]

Dave and Roman, your comments are well taken. If I could remove one element it would have been the tree and after that the bright lamp. I know that there is a lot going on here and it is distracting. However, my thought originally was the very fact that in a downtown harbor, there is alot going on, so I didn't mind that. I was taking photos of the city when the couple came and sat down in front of me and so I just kept shooting. Here is a repost. I cropped it considerably because most other crops didn't work well as far as aspect ratio and/or they put the couple in the middle of the scene. I also wish there was more canvas below them. There is also considerable lens distortion that needs correction (not able to do that in Aperture). If I had it to do again.... :S3:

Again, thanks for the accurate comments and critique. I am still learning and your comments are appreciated.

[Tom Redd]

This is another version possibly closer to what Roman had in mind.

[Hazel Grant]

The second repost of the vertical is stronger to me because it has the impact of the couple plus the beauty of the skyline.

[Dave Mills]

Hi Tom, yes, more effective but as you stated I wish for more room below and the image is tilting right...

[Andrew McLachlan]

Hi Tom, nicely exposed. I prefer the second vertical crop, but as Dave mentioned it is tilting a little - an easy fix. I too wish for more room at the bottom.

[Kaushik Balakumar]

Just trying to add my version. I first tried some content aware filling to include more space in the bottom. It simply did'nt work & hence I painted a grey colour to indicate "wishing for that extra space".

[Tom Redd]

Thank you Kaushik, I agree, I needed more room. Thank you for the repost