Camp Pretty Lake

[caine22]

My father, and occasionally myself, volunteer at this camp for the disabled. We went there at sunset to see what it was like. It was filled with giant mosquitoes, mostly, and also I took a few pics. Suggestions for improvement?

[RexK_Cozumel]

it is too dark. Try getting there a little earlier so that the sun is still lighting up the lake. Also will give you some more striking color in the sky. Compositionally I feel that the little bit of water before the dock adds nothing to the picture. Perhaps get on the dock and down low to have just a bit of dock in the foreground then the lake.

[wulf]

I think it would be worth playing with different vantage points on the situation. The classic guideline would be to think about dividing the image into bands, each covering about 1/3 of the vertical space and each having a different main subject (eg. dock, water, trees and sky).

If you have a tripod to shoot from it might be a good shot for some HDR type work. You would need one shot that is overexposed compared to this, so the dock and water are not too dark, and another that is underexposed, to get more colour in the sky. You would then blend the two together in post-processing to get the best features of both.

Or, if you want to go "old school" a graduated neutral density filter would do, allowing more light from the bottom of the picture compared to the top and thus giving you better exposure and richer sunrise colours.

Wulf