Honaunau 'Apelila Ahiahi (a sunset shot)

[Afox]

So I finally got my new camera but the weather has just been just gross (for Hawaii mind you). Anyway, I went down the Honaunau Beach Park - it's about 5 mins from my house to see if I could get some good sunset pics out on the lava flow slabs. The weather was blah (to me this is a below average sunset night). The vog makes it very hazy when the wind if blowing north like it has been for the past week but oh well I digress.

I'm working in Photoshop with several different sharping techinques and I'm wondering what you guys think of the overall sharpness - to much? Also, comments on the exposure are welcome. Camera Raw's auto wanted to take it down a bit more but I only took down 2/3 of a stop (raw wanted to go 1.5 which kinda blew out any detail in the middle shadow section of lava rock).

Also comments on the composition - just to blah?

[Afox]

I love shooting in RAW. I was able to alter the white balance for what I think is a very cool effect. I was hand holding this so it was a bit blurry but a pass with smart sharpen and 2 passes with a lab sharpen.

[RexK_Cozumel]

Two nice shots but it bothers me that the colors are off.

[Saralonde]

I think you did a nice job in PS. What camera and lens do you have?

[Afox]

To answer Saralonde - A Nikon D80 with a Sigma 10-20mm lens. For these shots I had to use a 4 stop ND filter for the sky.

Color is off? The first one is pretty much how it looked the second shot I adjusted the white balance but then again I can't find my spyder so my monitor might be off a bit?

[Nicole]

I don't think that the colour looks off from my monitor, but I don't know if that actually helps you

The second shot makes me think of somewhere cold and icy rather than Hawaii, I'm not sure if that's because of the time of day/night or the white balance adjustment that you just mentioned.

The composition is ok. I mean, I like the shots because they're simple and kind of calm, and you've divided the water and sky areas nicely. I think that they're effective for what they are. I think that anything else added actually would have been too much for these scenes (a less than helpful answer, sorry ). So, yeah, overall, they're good sunsets, though maybe a bit more detail in the rocks or something would be good as well.

[Afox]

thanks for the comments Nicole. They are helpful