Coming Into San Diego

[IheartSD]

Camera: Canon EOS Digital Rebel XS
Exposure: 0.003 sec (1/400)
Aperture: f/10.0
Focal Length: 100 mm
ISO Speed: 200
Exposure Bias: 0 EV

Any ideas on how to get more from the sky as it seems lacking?

[digital45]

I'm no expert so feel free to take the following with a pinch of salt.

The colours seem really unnatural and you have a halo around the buildings. If you refined your use of PP you could probably bring the sky out a little more.

[dave.turley]

Agree with digital45. Also *passes salt*...The tower could do with straightening.

[EMansfield]

I agree. The first thing I noticed is the halo in the structures. Composition-wise, I think it's okay. I also agree that it would have been nice if you have brought out the details of the sky.

Cheers!

Eric Mansfield

[GadgetRick]

Yes, the halos are distracting. Some slight straightening is needed. What are you using for pp. LR would probably be able to bring the sky out with some recovery and other things.

[navcom]

It appears you removed most of the contrast in PP. I think you may have removed from the photo what makes the photo look more natural...shadows and dark areas. What you have looks more like a painting.

With the HDR techniques and PP software available today, it's easy to overdo the highlights and try to use PP to create huge dynamic range to make an image "pop". While for some photos, this is really neat, for most, it just makes them look very un-natural and cartoonish as this is not what we see with our own eyes.

Art is subjective and increasing dynamic range is a form of art these days. And that's not a bad thing in my mind. But if you are trying to get natural detail, you need natural contrast. If you remove all shadows and bump the highlights to the max, you will by definition remove depth.

But I do like your composition! Hope that helps!