Sunset over Port Phillip Bay (Melbourne)

[Marianne*]

Hi all,

My first picture here. I just recently bought an SLR (Nikon D5100) and i'm loving messing around with all the settings and trying stuff out. I sat at the bay for about an hour trying different things and took about 200 pictures. From all of them, I think this one is the most interesting, even though it didn't actually look anything like this color wise.. I didn't do any post processing, except for some cropping and straightening.

Would appreciate any kind of feedback!





Exposure 0.004 sec (1/250)
Aperture f/8.0
Focal Length 18 mm
ISO Speed 200
Exposure Bias -2/3 EV

[Marcus Reinkensmeyer]

A very dramatic sky. Notes and Suggestions: 1) The horizon line is tilting to the right. This can be corrected in software edit, but it will require you to downsize the overall size of the image; 2) You mention that the color rendition is not what you saw. You may want to experiment with the white balance settings in your final edit; and, 3) Consider increasing the contrast for this image.

Thanks for sharing ... Marcus

[Doug Sundseth]

I don't know that I would push the contrast in general, and I'd even be hesitant to push the sky contrast, for fear of blowing out the highlights.

I would at least try cropping down from the top and in at least from the left. The current crop leaves too much uninteresting area there.

Straightening the horizon will probably cause too close a crop on the bottom of the image, but since it's a silhouette anyway, you should be able to add back the lost negative space without too much difficulty. Since there's no detail there, cloning in some darkness should be pretty simple.

[sueedens]

Hi,

Love the colours. I'm from Melbourne too and I'm curious to know exactly where you took this photo. I'm a beginner too and looking for places where I can go to practice my photography. I'm working on building a list of 'go-to' places that I can go within a few hours of Melb to practice. Can you give me details of the location?

Thanks

[unitedphoto]

This is real nice i think it's great send us some more

[FJH]

I really like it. Welcome to your 1st DPS Photo Post

The cropping thing I kind of agree with. You mentioned the colors don't look quite the same. It seems like a more dramatic sky is in this photo.

Try different things like slightly brightening or increasing the exposure a bit. After that is when you could add a little vibrance if needed.

Use your Histogram on playback if you don't already. It will be your best friend. That's a great way to know if your exposure is correct & creative.

Just wondering if you shot that in RAW ? It looks like a painting. I'd love to see this just a bit brighter. TFS!

[Barry Jackson]

Great shot.

I usually agree with most other posts but this time I am going to go a slightly different direction.

I think the horizon looks lower on the left than on the right.

I don't think I would remove any from the left because that would put the pier too centered. I would remove a slight amount from the right.

I might remove a small amount from the top but not much.

In curves I would set stationary points at mid-tones and highlights and raise a shadow point just a little. That will leave the mid-tones and highlights alone and lighten the shadows.

If the colors don't resemble what you remember you may have had your white balance set to auto. I just read today (on DPS) that it is better to set your white balance to shade or cloudy for a sunset picture.

[Marianne*]

Thanks heaps for all the input!
In terms of the colors, I made different shots with different white balances and it was good to see all the differences. I didn't shoot in RAW (learned about the benefits of RAW afterwards..). For this photo-shoot I didn't really mind the colors being different (because i was just practicing), it was just a statement.

Sueedens, I took this picture at the beach near my house, in Parkdale. It's a nice spot, though if you'd come down specifically to take pictures, I would go a bit further north to Beaumaris (there is a marine sanctuary there).

[sueedens]

Thanks for sharing the location and for the tip to try Beaumaris. You are lucky to be near the beach! I'm in suburbia - have to venture out a bit further to find places that are landscape worthy.

All the best with your photography, looks like you are off to a great start.

Cheers
Sue

[Digital Colodion]

Marianne congratulations for your camera..... for me it has a meaning just like that because it's one of your first photographs with your new camera without editing besides the aesthetics i read how much you enjoyed keep like that !