Sunset - Ft. Desoto

[allanrube]

I am taking a break from sunrises and birds to look at a sunset I took just about a month ago while on vacation. I have a question too. Why does the horizon bend?

D3X 24-120 VR at 44mm
ISO 100 1/13 f/11

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[Andrew McLachlan]

Hi Allan, the horizon is 'bent' because of lens distortion. You can easily fix that up my going to Filter - lens correction and then adjust the distortion until the horizon line is straight. Looks like you were standing up and pointing the lens downward, thus the concave horizon. If you were to crouch down or sit and shoot the scene dead on the distortion would be minimized or gone all together. I like the glow on the water and the incoming wave. I do find the sand around the branches bothersome as it looks different from the rest of the beach, but not sure why. I would evict the small lines in the sand as they look man made.

[Dave Woeller]

Lovely shot and excellent comments by Andrew above. I'm a slow shutter speed type of guy, so I might like to see this with just a bit less detail on the water, but it's lovely as is.

[Morkel Erasmus]

Andrew hit the nail on the head. If you work in LR or PS, the RAW converter actually gives you distortion correction presets which are based on data from the manufacturers...I normally select the one applicable to my lens (it will pick up the lens from the EXIF info) and it does the trick. Shooting lower would also have helped as mentioned.

Overall I like the mood here, though I too would've liked a slower SS...did you do some dodging/blurring around the branches as there are "smooth" lighter patches which look out of place to the RHS of the branches?

[allanrube]

I fixed the horizon and made a few other changes. The patches near the branches are the result of one of the Nik filters - perhaps tonal contrast.

Here is a repost.

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[Robert Amoruso]

The composition is well thought out with the branches FG left and sun BG right - this creates a diagonal in the image for the eye to follow.

Personally, I never like the look of water like this and would have preferred a much longer shutter speed. Again, that is my preference and suggestion for future experimentation.

I have been looking at this since you posted it Allan but wonder about the odd lightening of the sand around the branches - it does not look natural.