Slowly Washed to Sea

[dakwegmo]

Focal length: 22 mm
Aperture: f/22
Shutter speed: 2.5 s
ISO: 200

I'm open to any suggestions for this shot, but the question I have is about the balance. Do you think the image is well balanced, or does it feel like your focus is directed to one part of the image?

[EOBeav]

What a cool subject, and I like the amount of motion in those waves. My only thought is maybe shoot from a little lower, to put those waves more prominently in the foreground? Also, any reason you chose f/22? You would have been a little sharper and had just as much depth of field at f/16 or so.

[dakwegmo]

Thanks for the comment. I usually shoot landscapes around f/16, but went with f/22 because I was trying to squeeze a little bit longer shutter speed to blur the waves a bit more. Since I was blurring so much of the scene anyway, I wasn't too concerned about the difference in overall sharpness. I'm not really sure how much additional blurring I got with that extra shutter speed though.

As for the lower angle, that's a good suggestion. I wish I could go back and shoot this again so I can try to get more emphasis of the shells in the foreground.

[Bruce A]

A great capture. I like the softness of the colours. Would make saleable prints imo. Nicely done!

[milosh]

I like your composition, my focus is directed towards the tree, and it firmly stays there, but the image feels balanced. I like the edge of the foreground wave since it leads my eye nicely towards the tree.

You say you used f22 'cause of shutter speed, but you could have lowered your ISO to 100 and shot it at f16.

Also, and this is just a personal preference, but I find the image to be lacking contrast a bit. You would have to be careful increasing it, since the tree is already pretty dark, you don't want to push it to pure black. Also, increasing contrast too much would be contradictory to the dreamy look you're after, but I think it can be done carefully to enhance the image. Nice shot overall!

[dakwegmo]

Thanks for the comments guys. I'll play with the contrast a bit and see how I like it.

I shoot with a Nikon D300 which has a native ISO of 200; there's no true ISO 100, and I've found LO1 essentially useless when shooting RAW.