Kaikoura coast

[Benny Pan]

Took this shot at Kaikoura coast in NZ. Was a cloudy windy day for whale watching.

Used polarizing plus ND8 filter to lengthen the SS to 1/6s at F25. ISO200. I merely managed to fast twist the zooming ring during the 1/6s to get the dynamic effect but not quite sure if you can feel it. It's not that obvious though. What else can you do to further lengthen the SS?

Converted to B/W and darkened the sky, also cranked up the contrast. In terms of composition, do you think the foreground is quite boring? An option i can think of is to wait until the waves washed up the shore a bit more.

Nikon D40 18-55mm kit lens at 22mm, can't used 18mm due to the vignette cropping from the filters.

Critique hard on this you guys are my mentors

[Spiralofourdiv]

For the most part, I really like this shot, but I do have two gripes with it:

1. The B&W conversion seems kinda flat/dull. There really isn't a lot of "crispness" to it, and the dynamic range is pretty shallow; grey midtones dominate the photo. I think this really hinders the photo from reaching it's potential.

2. The foreground. The shore that makes up the foreground has some texture to it, but other than that It really doesn't add to the photo. Almost 50% of the entire photo is this gravel stuff, which isn't really all that interesting. The other 50% is where the real money is. When I look at the photo my eyes are constantly pushing towards the top of the frame because I want to see more of the sky. You follow the rule of thirds for your horizon, but I would have aligned the horizon with the lower rule of thirds line instead of the upper. Unfortunately, unless this is a crop, you can't really re-compose this image in post...

-Brian

[Benny Pan]

Originally Posted by Spiralofourdiv

For the most part, I really like this shot, but I do have two gripes with it:
1. The B&W conversion seems kinda flat/dull. There really isn't a lot of "crispness" to it, and the dynamic range is pretty shallow; grey midtones dominate the photo. I think this really hinders the photo from reaching it's potential.

Thank you Brian for really taking time to think about my photo. For the first point, i don't know what you mean by crispness? you mean the photo is lack of sharpening? Or because of the zoom twisting action during the exposure time?

Originally Posted by Spiralofourdiv

For the most part, I really like this shot, but I do have two gripes with it:
2. The foreground. The shore that makes up the foreground has some texture to it, but other than that It really doesn't add to the photo. Almost 50% of the entire photo is this gravel stuff, which isn't really all that interesting. The other 50% is where the real money is. When I look at the photo my eyes are constantly pushing towards the top of the frame because I want to see more of the sky. You follow the rule of thirds for your horizon, but I would have aligned the horizon with the lower rule of thirds line instead of the upper. Unfortunately, unless this is a crop, you can't really re-compose this image in post...

-Brian

I do agree with this point. I did doubt if I should put time on developing this photo because of the homogenous boring gravel foreground. And it's true that it takes up half of the photo

Well I am very glad you have put down these points from that I will improve my next shot. Thank you Brian!!

[leviathan]

I think your shot is stunning. I love the atmosphere and mood that is present as a result of the beautiful shades and contrast between whites, grays, and blacks. I love it.

[Krusty79]

I don't think you could have done much to increase the shutter speed. You can drop the ISO down to 100 and/or use a circular polarizer, but that won't make a huge difference.

I agree with Brian that the dark foreground is not interesting enough to merit taking up that much of your shot. If there were some rock formations you could use, that would be different. To me, the interesting part about this shot is the interplay between the stormy sky, the distant mountains and the shoreline. So, if I were to re-shoot this, I would want to include more sky and less foreground. It's still a good shot, though.