Kids playing in the Sunset

[SwissJon]

Alright, so the kids are only incidental to this shot, but I do like their presence at the end of the pier, I think it adds something. If only the sun would stop going down just as I leave work, I might find other subjects to photograph than a sunset But for the time being, that is my source and my photographic style.

So my question here is mainly regarding the crop.. I know I have a huge expanse of nothingness to the top, but I like that.. Should I crop closer or does that add to the overall feeling of the Photo? I can't decide if the rocks on either side makes this look phallic or if that's my imagination. Should I crop them out or leave them there, should I crop to a portrait shot or does that take from the photo? Is it ok to put this central or should I crop a bit off one side to make the photo more interesting? For some reason all my "keeper" photos at the moment seem to be symmetrical.. (I wonder what a Psych would say about that!)

Also, how's the exposure? I bumped it up a bit in LR, and I notice from my experiments in LR that there's a bit of detail to be had in the pier, it's cobbled unevenly which shows up as small sillouettes, should I bring that detail out or maybe it's better as a sillouette?

Oh, and last but not least.. What kind of emotional feeling do you get from this photo?

Exif:
Camera: SLT-A55V
Lens: Carl Zeiss Vario-Sonnar T* DT 16-80mm F3.5-4.5 ZA
Focal length: 16*mm*(equiv. 24*mm)
Aperture: F13
Exposure time: 1/3"
ISO speed rating: 100/21°
Program: Manual
Metering Mode: Center-weighted average
White Balance: Auto
Image Stabilizer: Off
Flash: Flash did not fire, compulsory flash mode


Sunset at Pully by SwissJon, on Flickr

[dvtldav]

Nice capture. I like it the way it is but if I was going to crop it I would probably crop a little off of the left side of the photo because the pier seems to be leading to the right just a bit and that would have it leading into the picture. You might try to lighten the pier just a little but I think that will change the mood or emotion of the scene. Maybe try a little fill light in LR.
To me the mood or emotion is kind of romantic.

Dave

[BigFuzzy]

Heya Jon,

It's quite a pleasing photo in general, so there's little I'd do to change things.
I like the wide expanse of sky, it adds to the emotional feel (see below) of the image for me.
I would crop off the nuts..uh, rocks just because I think it would make it all more clean and simple which i think is a big selling point to this image. Problem is, i want the whole of the railing in it as well which would be cut off a bit if you cropped out the rocks.. so, to me, cloning out the rocks would be the best solution.

I like the central composition, to me these sorts of shots work great for this sort of composition.

Emotionally, I feel anger because we don't get much sun here (Netherlands) much less nice sunsets! Seriously, the feeling I get is almost loneliness, but not lonely in a sappy chick sort of way, but in the "I'm a small cog in a much larger universe" sort of way which is nice.

I'd leave the dock silhouetted.

Otherwise, it's quite a nice image.


Oh... move the watermark, it's smack dab on one of the visually more interesting aspects of the image.. yeah, I know you probably only put it on there to protect it, but still, it's a bit distracting to me.

[SwissJon]

Hey BF..

Now that'll be why I left Northern Europe for a sunnier climate.. Still, it's overcast here, bloody cold and threatening snow.. Can't wait for the spring so I can get my motorbike out again.

The cloning job is probably going to be something of an engineering feat.. It might be easier to go back and find a crane, remove the rocks, and retake the picture as I don't have anything to clone from, so I'll neet to create a gradient and hopefully not wreck the photo in the mean while. Maybe if I just cloned out the easier rock on the left it might take away the phallic idea from the photo (or would that be a phallicy?)

I'll make the watermark smaller.. but it's a neccesary thing, otherwise I'll have people using my stuff without my say so..Not that I mind, I just want to be credited with my work and if there's money to be earned, I want a few coppers myself!

Thanks Dave.. I see what you mean about the lead in, but doesn't the rail balance that out? mountains and the rail,

[TBrown00]

I like the image but agree that getting rid of the rocks in the corner would make it a little cleaner. I agree with Fuzzy and also like the central composition in this case. I think the openness of the view gives a calm, pleasing feeling.

A couple things I might try next time though: if you want more detail in the dock (I think it looks fine right now, but the cobbled pattern might be interesting) I wold try a grad ND filter. I use one for my sunset shots and it helps a lot. The other thing I would try would be to move a little to the left and point the camera back toward the right a little bit to see if you could get the pier leading into the sunset a little more.

Nice shot though!