Lake Winnebago Dawnrise

[Sistereinstein]

Morning DPS peeps! I have been working on my sunrise shots as of late and wanted some critique on my use of exposure, composition and post processing.




Exif data
Camera Canon EOS Digital Rebel XSi
Exposure 0.025 sec (1/40)
Aperture f/18.0
Focal Length 18 mm
ISO Speed 100
Exposure Bias +1/3 EV

Thank you!

[SwissJon]

Well, it's pretty, but there's a couple of things..

Your Horizon isn't level.. By that, I mean it's curved. It's only a small curvature and you can sort that out in PS or LR fairly easily, but it shows.

Umm, what's the subject in this photo? The sea is awfully pretty, but there's no point of interest in it. The sun is there, but it's not "peeping over the horizon", it's substantially above it, so you've lost the dawn and pre-dawn colours in the sky, and there's no clouds toe really add interest.

The photo is very peaceful, but I think you missed the best part of the day by 20 or 30 minutes. The photo would have been even nicer if you'd managed to catch the sun much lower in the sky or behind the horizon altogether.

[dlambert]

I think a graduated ND filter might have helped a bit here -- I'd like to see just a bit more exposure on the bottom part of the photo. You might be able to punch that up a bit in PP. If you're going to work on PP again for this photo, see if you can correct the lens distortion a bit, too to correct the curvature of the horizon.

Per Jon's comment, it might be fun to try to show some ice shanties or even shoot from a breakwater or something. You're not going to find any boats in the water this time of year, but you might still find something of interest along the shore to incorporate. If you're lucky, you might be able to catch some ice boats (though probably not too many at sunrise). Check out the SSIYC just N. of 24th street in Oshkosh.