San Francisco: Marina Sunset

[chomp!]

Howdy folks. I'm a first time poster. Would like some critique on my picture that I took in San Francisco back in 2010. I'm still learning so feel free to blast it.

I'm unsure of the posting etiquette. But, I've already got it posted on Flickr.

Let me know what you think.



38mm
ISO 200
1/200s
F/16
Nikon D5000

[Hill Country Hack]

Welcome to DPS. This is a great site to learn. Hit up all those free tutorials on just about any subject.

To get more/better feedback please follow the Critique Forum Rules. Folks tend to not follow links. You can post directly from FLickr by clicking on the image to enlarge it. Find the "actions" tab in that window, click it and you will see some dialog. Copy and paste that to your thread. Be sure the long edge is no larger that 740.

Please include the shooting infor (EXIF). Apeture, ISO, Shutter speed, tipod use, flash (type and placement) if used.

Edit your post and I be you get some responses.

[chomp!]

Thanks Hill Country.

I went ahead and edited the post as you suggested. Hopefully I'll get more response this way.

[Weird Girl]

Yay! Someone else with a Nikon D5000 LOL I'll be honest and let you know that I have not jumped too much into landscape photography but look forward to it! I think you have a nice straight horizon, the colors are nice, and I love water and boats! It looks slightly dark to me but I imagine if you brighten it in pp it's not going to do your sky any favors.... I would have brought a tripod and lowered my shutter speed to soak in more ambient light and really bring out those colors in the sky... other than that, I'm still learning so that's all I got haha Keep shooting and posting!

[Doug Sundseth]

Beautiful sky, nice composition, underexposed foreground.

This is the situation an ND Grad filter was designed for. Alternately, a judicious use of HDR/tone mapping could work well here also.

[Krusty79]

I would like to have seen this taken a little later when the clouds start turning pink. I would also crop or clone out that part of the boat on the right. I think it's a nice scene, but I'm not sure if the subject is the boats or the Bridge. As a result, my eye doesn't know where to settle.

[Barry Jackson]

Lots of potential at this location.

I agree the boat on the right needs to go.

I think the scene would improve with a little more contrast and saturation.

I would dodge the highlights around the boats and darken the top of the sky with maybe a gradient.

[Hill Country Hack]

I agree with the other posters.

This site has tons of potential for Golden/Blue hours. I would have hung around until after sun down to see what the sky did.

I don't want to offend, but with landscape photography this is always a good read http://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j...XehRqQeAOul4dA. As is http://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j...xLn_lE19BMqIYQ

[chomp!]

All,

Thanks so much for the insight on composition. Next time I go I will definitely be sure to try and find a better angle the will fit more of the boats in the foreground whilst removing some of the dead space that is consumed by the water. Hopefully I can also find a spot that will keep the bridge continuous. I'll also continue shooting well past sunset and see what I get. The boat on the right is a definite crop out. I have a version with the left-hand tower's cross in the bottom third.

@Barry. Really good tip about dodging the boats. I didn't know anything about dodging and burning before you mentioned it. When I googled for a tutorial I stumbled upon a really neat Ansel Adam's quote: "Dodging and burning are steps to take care of mistakes God made in establishing tonal relationships."

When bumping up the exposure, the boats were first to clip. I will work on brushing those down a bit and then bumping up the exposure/fill light to see if I can't get the foreground to look a little better.

Thanks all for the honest feedback. I'll take all of your notes and repost to see what you all think.

[ironmike]

Originally Posted by Krusty79

I would like to have seen this taken a little later when the clouds start turning pink.

Of course in SF - take the shot when you see it, then wait and take some more. I would not be surprised at all if the gate was completely fogged in 10 minutes after this shot was taken.