First post featuring a Marseilles sunset

[youhopper]

I took this my first week after picking up my Rebel XTi. I'm a bit new to the game but I'm really loving the photos that turn out.

I'm diggin how the bridges step down to the right and also the way the light hits the hilltops but the shadows really darken the rest of the shot... Looking forward to some constructive criticism!

Thanks!

1/250s
f/9.0
ISO 400
18mm

[EOBeav]

If this is sunset, try this shot again at sunrise, with the sun gently illuminating the face of that structure. As it is, you're trying to combine sunlight with shadows, and the two don't play nicely together on a digital camera sensor.

[curelightwounds]

There're three problems I see:
1) As stated above, yes the lighting is extreme which is nice and adds a nice layer of contrast. It's also a little plain.

I've noticed that if I'm shooting outdoors, I'm at the mercy of the sun. Indoors I can control and manipulate light if I need to to, but outside all you have is the sun and the sun does not care about your photography.

Unfortunately the sun only gives you interesting things at dawn and dusk when you get oranges and reds and blues and purples -- otherwise it's plain white light and just degrees of blue.

If you shot at the opposite time if day you would have illuminated that stone bridge thing and that would have made the photo a lot more interesting. If there was light coming through the arches it would have been interesting as well. Unfortunately you have a mountain in the way so your only option is front lighting and because you're outdoors the only way to get front lighting is at the opposite time of day.

2) Lens correction. There's a bowing in the bridge that I assume is straight. Some lens correction will straighten that out. You'd be surprised by how much sharp lines can add to a photo

3) The subject isn't really that interesting. I don't know what I'm supposed to be looking at. The bridge is nice, but it's just a bridge and it's underexposed. The hill just a hill. The only thing that's interesting is the clouds but it's way up in the upper left corner where people rarely look.

[Ben Lee]

To me when I think about sunsets I think warm colours. This shot could have been taken in the middle of the day given the dominance of blue and dark tones.

The bottom 5th or so of the photo is mostly black and underexposed - I'm wondeirng if you could have shot a bit higher up to include some of that lovely cirrus that you had in the sky at the time (while still maintaining the lovely bridge of course).

I think you pretty much have the angle right through, the exposed rocks on the top of the cliff are shadowed nicely for depth.