Sunset Lake Reflections

[Jschlechte]

I feel the picture is a bit to dark, but I liked the shades of colours in the sky and the reflections on the water.

[EOBeav]

The mods like you to include your EXIF data. I'll help you out and post it here:

Camera Nikon D90
Exposure 0.05 sec (1/20)
Aperture f/14.0
Focal Length 50 mm
ISO Speed 1600
Exposure Bias +2/3 EV

Your colors are nice, but maybe a bit oversaturated. You caught this sunset at the right time. Did you edit in Lightroom?

The most noticeable thing is the amount of noise in the sky, even looking at the smaller resolution image. That usually happens at higher ISO's, and especially in the blue channel.

Do you have a tripod? They're a must for these kinds of images. You should have your ISO set to the smallest number possible, then just use your tripod to hold the camera steady for the longer exposure time necessary in these lighting conditions.

Compositionally, I think you could have cut out a significant amount of the foreground and been just fine. It's a little messy, and doesn't really add much to the shot.

f/16 was a good aperture decision, though. I usually have mine between f/11 and f/16 for shots like this.

[Krusty79]

+1 to what EOBeav said. I'll add that if you want to take yours shots to the next level, I'd look for a more compelling silhouette to place against the horizon and/or get down closer to the water to see if you can add some foreground interest. Good job capturing the colors, but that one tall building that stands out and gets my attention isn't really that compelling from that distance.

[Jschlechte]

Thanks for the feedback and tips. I'll definetly keep those in mind and try taking the same picture again under better situations. I happened to be driving by when I saw this and liked the colours. I agree the first thing I noticed was the ISO was a bit high. I've only jsut started using the manual settings so it's nice to get some feedback on how I can go to the next level.