Sunset on the lake

[SwissJon]

I stayed out last Friday until the sun set over the lake.. Found myself a lovely spot.. With about 1000 other people because it's carnival weekend, so I was very surprised to find anywhere that didn't have people in the frame that was actually worth putting the camera.. Somehow about 10 mins before sunset a group of people moved on and left me alone on this small section of beach.. perfect.. the sun set just at the join where the land met the water, I couldn't have been ahappier (my backup spot was rather weak in comparison.)

So I sat and played with a few settings, and set the camera up on the lowest setting my tripod would go, and started snapping.. Initially I used F/22 at 16mm and switched off the VR and set the focus using the hyperfocal distance to try to get foreground stones and the horizon in focus. But just after the sun set I was about to go when I thought I'd take one last shot, I zoomed in on this outcrop and opened up to F14 to cope with the fading light, but completely forgot to reset the focal point from 1.5m to the new hyperfocal length of just over 4m, and didn't switch on the VR. Just after this picture was taken, the colours faded and the opportunity was missed.

So now, in pixel peeping mode, I notice there's a fair amount of blur on the objects on the outcrop. (There's also some CA, but that's not surprising) and I notice it.. But that's because I'm looking, or do you notice the softness too?

I tried my best to correct for the sharpness in PS. But did I manage it? Did I go too far and oversharpen? Did I overdo any of the other PP corrections?

What about composition? I deliberately put the water horizon low in the picture because I wanted the point at which the outcrop to meet the distant mountains at about 1/3 intersection on the lower left, but that puts the sunset itself about half way up the picture, is that an issue?

Finally, there's a very odd chunk of cloud along the top edge.. Crop or Keep?

Camera: NIKON D7000
Focal length: 85*mm*(equiv. 127*mm)
Aperture: F14
Exposure time: 25"
ISO speed rating: 100/21°
Program: Manual
Metering Mode: Spot
White Balance: Auto
Flash: Flash did not fire, compulsory flash mode

Used 6 stop B6W ND Filter
Boosted the levels, contrast and Colour saturation in PS and applied an unsharp mask.

[Art]

Crop the clouds, the rest looks good
Thanks Art

[milosh]

Jon, I find it amusing to read your posts when you put up a photo for critique because at first, you sound like you're gonna ask one or two questions, and then you add another bunch of them.

Sharpness looks ok for this size, however, when looking at the 1024pix size, the edge of that hill does look soft. You could try doing some high pass sharpening on that edge.
The colours are nice and natural, not too saturated. The horizon/water line is ok, although I find the whole image to be a bit uninteresting. And I wouldn't crop anything. Hope this helps!

[SwissJon]

Originally Posted by milosh

Jon, I find it amusing to read your posts when you put up a photo for critique because at first, you sound like you're gonna ask one or two questions, and then you add another bunch of them.

Sharpness looks ok for this size, however, when looking at the 1024pix size, the edge of that hill does look soft. You could try doing some high pass sharpening on that edge.
The colours are nice and natural, not too saturated. The horizon/water line is ok, although I find the whole image to be a bit uninteresting. And I wouldn't crop anything. Hope this helps!

Lol.. Putting things in writing helps me think and critique my work. .. I guess I haven't learned the art of writing short sentences!

I'll have a crack at the sharpening, it's where I noticed it too, I'd had a bash at it with the unsharp mask, but I was beginning to get halos.

I know what you mean about "uninteresting". Now I look at it, there's no strong subject, no lead in, just a bunch of pretty colours.. When I was taking the photo I was hoping the shapes of the buildings would stand out more on the outcrop and compensate for the lack of foreground interest, or the colours would be more striking.. It wasn't my favourite one of the evening and even those lack strong foreground subject. I just figured I'd made the effort to take it, so I might as well see if anyone has any ideas to improve it.

Ho hum, some days you get them, some days you don't.

[kenichiukiya]

I agree with what Milosh said. unfortunately this is a tricky one. I think the clouds make the photo look a bit soft overall, but cropping them out would make the whole photo less interesting....hmm...That being said, I love all the other ones on your Flickr.

[FlyingKiwiGirl]

I think you need a Norfolk Pine in there

Tell me, why the long exposure?

I love the colours and is that a Church spire I see, pity it wasn't closer. Nice shot.

[SwissJon]

Originally Posted by FlyingKiwiGirl

I think you need a Norfolk Pine in there

Tell me, why the long exposure?

I love the colours and is that a Church spire I see, pity it wasn't closer. Nice shot.

Yes.. You're absolutely right. I definitely need a Norfolk Pine in there!! That's absolutely certain, it's what the picture is missing.

I used such a long exposure to get rid of any texture on the water. I could happily have gone down to half a second or less by removing the 6 stop filter, but the water was quite rough so I'd have lost all of the foreground reflections and colours. (Plus I'm kinda addicted to taking long exposures.) This would have helped a little with the camera shake I guess..

Also, long shots like these give the camera time to absorb the changing colours on the clouds.. as the sun goes down round here, the colours change quite rapidly, but we can often miss some of the fleeting colours in a short exposure shot..

Yes, that's a church spire, it's not very clear in the large photo because of camera shake.. That's the trouble with heavy zoom lenses, they tend to shake at the slightest vibration. I think I'd be better off with a lighter prime lens and I'm beginning to think I need a sturdier tripod.

Thanks kenichiukiya.. I preferred the ones with the stones in the foreground, but there's no point in putting my better shots up here, I want to learn something so I put something that I know is not as good as it could be and see if anyone has any ideas on how to improve it.