The Surfer Ends the Day

[Trankonia]

While I am certainly trying to convey the late evening and a lone surfer mood, I am not sure of the balance of light. If I try to lighten the scene the mood changes and the Sun gets blown out. Do you think this is an appropriate balance or is the surfer too dark? He is small but I thought that helped convey the isolation.

Nikon D5000, Shutter: 1/500, F/11, ISO 200, Focal Length: 18mm, Lens 18.0-55mm F3.5-5.6, Metering: Matrix

[Eileen D]

I like the light as it is because it highlights the great textures in the foreground but I'm not sure I would have even noticed the surfer right away without your title and explanation. I don't think that's a result of light but rather size. Perhaps the figure shows more in a larger image but as it is here, it would take me a bit to notice him and then I wouldn't necessarily know he was a surfer. I do think you've done a great job creating a mood in this image.

[SwissJon]

Eileen is right.. This is a superb photo of a lonely beach, and I love it.. But the surfer is far too small to be the subject, I think you need him at least 4 times the size.. I'm not sure how you'd achieve given how far the sea is.. Perhaps pull back a bit and use a longer focal length, but That would change the composition.. Maybe it's just good enough to leave it as it is.

[Trankonia]

Thanks SwissJon. I wanted the nice foreground textures and that, of course, compromised the size of the surfer. It does look much better in full size resolution but the surfer is certainly smaller than desired.

[SwissJon]

No worries.. Perhaps next time you could convince him to come onto the beach and be in the foreground, walking away from the camera with his board under his arm? He needs to be big enough to identify who and what he is though.. As a general rule, I've found the best subjects are 1/3 the height of the overall photograph in a landscape photo (Or width if you're shooting portrait).. Much more and you lose the "landscape" photograph and the subject starts to pull itself out of the landscape, much less and it starts to get lost in it. That's my view anyway, I've not seen it written anywhere, it's just a starting point for the composition.. Of course it can be different to that and still work extremely well.

Like I said, it's a superb picture anyway in my view..