sunset crop help

[Jo.T]

Hi all
took this the other night wasnt a brilliant sunset and have cropped a lot of the sky out due to large patches of bright light. im only using a 18-55mm lense so i have to rely on cropping to bring up the photo i was after. i dont have photo shop im using nero photosnap to resize the photo. to crop to a A3 format i found that it had mostly water due to the sky i wanted to remove would it still be ok with more water? any other help with composition ect would be greatly appreciated
Thanks
Jo

Nikon D40X
1/80 sec
F/8
iso 200

[KansaiGreenie]

Hi Jo,

This is a pretty good image. I don't know why you say it is not a brilliant sunset; I think it is rather fetching. I especially like the touch of the birds flying through the scene.

would it still be ok with more water?

That, of course, is entirely up to your artistic sensibilities. However, for me, I don't find the water very interesting. It is just gray and flat. So I'm not sure that I would like to see more of it. Having said that, I like the long panoramic style crop. I think it works well for this image. In my opinion you only need an A3 crop if you are planning on printing it at that size. For screen use, I would leave it as is.

I hope that helps.

KG

[kstiltne]

tripod tripod tripod...would've made it a great image

[navcom]

I agree with kstiltne...a tripod would have saved the image unless it's actually a focus issue. It's quite fuzzy. An aperture of f/8 should yield a pretty good depth of field so I don't think that is what is causing it. It's either hand shake or out of focus.

My personal opinion....in landscape photography, a tripod is a necessity and should be used by default day or night, deviating only when there is no other choice but to hand hold.

Hand shake is the root of so many issues with landscapes that if using a tripod is not instinctive, you are left wondering "what happened to the sharpness"?

That being said, I also like your colors and exposure!