Sunrise on the water

[CarolineinMD]

I am new to this forum and to photography. I took this shot on my way to work last week and would love some ideas on how to improve my shots, for the next time I see a great sunrise. Thanks.

[calvin_ryan]

wow!!! just wow! great shot

please include the exif data btw

[mightylore]

Beautiful! What settings did you use on your camera?

[danbaileyphoto]

Welcome to the forum.

You have fantastic light here, so great job for noticing it, picking up the camera and grabbing the shot. That's often 90% of the battle.

What's missing, though, is a definable subject. I see a bunch of stuff in the frame and can't decide what you were really trying to focus on and portray in the shot. The best photos include at least one clearly defined subject, and often secondary subject element or elements that play off of the first one in some way.

I guess, if you wanted to break it down, the best photos are all about light, subject and relationship.

With a very simple, clearly defined subject and this kind of light, you'd have the potential for a jaw dropping image.

[brianxlt]

Nice shot! Lovely colors but as stated before no real subject. Also the bird lower center left (is it upside down?) if it’s a reflection you can't see the right side up one due to shadows. I would clone it out. Just looks odd

[anotherphotographynoob]

some exif would be great. this is an excellent shot.

improvements would be working with composition. you know how to catch great light, so the next time you are in such surroundings, try concentrate on telling a story with your photo.

looking forward to see more!

[Krusty79]

If you had a single tree or just a few trees as a silhouette against the sky, it would make for a much cleaner composition. Right now, you have a jumble of dark shapes in the shot, especially on the right side.

The tougher option is to include some foreground interest in your shot. However, this presents the challenge of getting the sky and ground correctly exposed and will probably require some combination of a graduated neutral density filter\bracketing your shots and doing an exposure blend or even HDR.

I do give you credit for getting up early and shooting in the golden hours. You were rewarded with a great sunrise!

[Barry Jackson]

Great shot!

The color and sky are so good that I don't mind that it is overly busy because I want to stay and investigate the scene.

Simpler may have been better but this is really good.

I am not sure about the upside down looking bird. Maybe the wings are on the down-stroke.

Congratulations on getting this so early in your experience. Some people go their whole career and never capture a sky like this.

[Rogern123]

Amazing sky. Hope you got some more shots perhaps from slightly different locations. Perhaps it might be nice to see some more detail in the posts / walkway so they are not just silhouettes - would have needed to have bracketed the exposure and played with some HDR software or Photoshop for that though. HDR would have made that sky even more dramatic too...

[CarolineinMD]

Thanks for your comments. I was so amazed at the colors, but it was a difficult spot to find a focal point. The bird is a reflection - I wanted to catch it before it got up as high so it wouldn't be the reflection but it was too quick for me. Next time I will try a spot further down the road. I shot this with my Nikon D60 with everything set on auto as I was running late for work and didn't have time to play around with it.