Does the Horizon Line in the middle make this a bad picture?

[nicko97]

This is an image of the Portland Head Lighthouse in Maine.

ISO 100
F/22
1/8 sec
Used a Tripod

I would like overall feedback but I was wondering does the horizon line make this a bad image. I often have trouble getting the horizon at the top or bottom 3rd of the image.

Is the right side to bright? When I took this it was really overcast and then the sun broke through for a few minutes.

I did edit this in Lightroom and color efex pro, don't remember exactly what I did.



Thanks for looking,
Mark

[Sweetlifephoto]

Rules of composition should not be applied slavishly. I think this is a very cool image. If anything, the slight tilt to the horizon is more of an issue for me than its location in the frame.

[milosh]

Hello Mark,

I do find the right side a bit too bright, it may take away some attention from the lighthouse, but it's not that bad (you could probably selectively take down the exposure of the sky a bit, especially if you shot this in RAW). Same goes for the horizon, the composition may have been more dynamic if the lighthouse was placed just a bit higher, but I don't think that this horizon is hurting the image at all. It is a very interesting photo, nicely captured, nicely processed, very very nice overall!

[autofocus]

Mark, here's a tighter crop of your very nice image bringing the horizon line up a bit...you decide which way you think is better. It's a simple fix without losing too much of the image if you prefer it this way

[stevefizz]

Hi Mark

Very Very nice picture

I agree with auto, You now have 'The Golden Rule'

You have the horizon on the horizontal and the lighthouse on the vertical lines.

[nicko97]

Originally Posted by Sweetlifephoto

Rules of composition should not be applied slavishly. I think this is a very cool image. If anything, the slight tilt to the horizon is more of an issue for me than its location in the frame.

Thanks, Not sure how I missed the fact that the horizon was slightly tilted. That is another area I have trouble getting right.

[nicko97]

Originally Posted by milosh

Hello Mark,

I do find the right side a bit too bright, it may take away some attention from the lighthouse, but it's not that bad (you could probably selectively take down the exposure of the sky a bit, especially if you shot this in RAW). Same goes for the horizon, the composition may have been more dynamic if the lighthouse was placed just a bit higher, but I don't think that this horizon is hurting the image at all. It is a very interesting photo, nicely captured, nicely processed, very very nice overall!

Hi, Thanks for critiquing my image. I appreciate the positive feedback as well has the negative parts that need to be fixed. I'm glad you like the image overall. I did shoot in raw so I could go back and make those adjustments. I actually just got CS5 and I'm learning how to use it. Do you think if I selected that area and use levels, would that work?

Thanks,
Mark

[dlambert]

I think in this case, even if you want to get away from a dead-center horizon, you don't need to go all the way to positioning it at one of the 1/3 marks. Personally, I wouldn't mind clipping just a bit off the top, but probably not much. I definitely wouldn't want to see the top of the lighthouse crowded by a close crop, so the composition is really close as-is, IMO.

[nicko97]

Originally Posted by autofocus

Mark, here's a tighter crop of your very nice image bringing the horizon line up a bit...you decide which way you think is better. It's a simple fix without losing too much of the image if you prefer it this way

The crop looks great, thanks a lot. When I crop a photo I usually leave it set to the original constraints because I never know what size I may print it in. Is that a bad practice, should I instead crop the image to what looks best instead?

Thanks,
Mark

[nicko97]

Originally Posted by dlambert

I think in this case, even if you want to get away from a dead-center horizon, you don't need to go all the way to positioning it at one of the 1/3 marks. Personally, I wouldn't mind clipping just a bit off the top, but probably not much. I definitely wouldn't want to see the top of the lighthouse crowded by a close crop, so the composition is really close as-is, IMO.

Thanks, I will have to play around with the crop a little bit. I guess it does bother me that the horizon line is in the middle.