waves,beach and way early in the morning

[Omar Tayfour]

hi,as the title suggests,i have this nice spot on the beach and ive been trying to capture it,but been unable to,like the waves and water looks dead,just simply frozen,dunno what to do,any advice?



nikon D90
focal length: 25mm
iso:400
shutter speed:1/60
arpeture: f10
let me know if any of u have prior experience in such situations?

[Omar Tayfour]

91 views so far and not a single critique? its either the perfect image taht no one can comment on (yeah right) or ppl here just dont critiq,just view pics and move on lol

[RichardTaylor]

Technical:

(1) It is very under exposed. Just have a look at the histogram.
(2) The out of focus foreground dosn't help

Aesthetics:
(2) The lighting is very flat - Try shooting it around dawn or dusk.

(3) The subject itself is a bit bland - try having some thing (sharp) in the foreground, back ground (even if it just clouds in the sky), and middle ground.

(4) Experiment with shutter speeds to control the appearance of the water.

[jimhuntphoto]

Listen to Richard. He nailed it. View his 500px stream.

[Omar Tayfour]

im viewin his flickr atm,will go to 500 after im done with the 313 pages! lol
but yeah he defenitly nailed it,already learnin a thing or 2 just by viewing the beach pics,absulotly love (the photographers) collection,thanks for the advice,im very new to this and still need alot of learnin,so ill just keep learning
and i was shootin around dawn but i swear the sun here is colpourless lol,not like back home where sunrise and sundawn fills the sky with colours,sun here just pops up or maybe it was just that uneventful mornin? hopefully thats the case.i tried diff shutter speeds the pic just turned brighter,but no adding much to the colours whatso ever,guess ill just try more.thanks for the useful critique and tips,i appreciate it

[RichardTaylor]

Thanks guys.

[baajero]

The longer the shutter speed the more dreamy the water will look. To achieve this you need to think of the triangle of light... so looking at you settings... I would drop the ISO down to 100... I would increase the number of the aperture (meaning the aperture opening will be smaller) and use a tripod with a remote shutter release... or a timer on the camera to avoid camera shake.
As far as composition of the shot I think Richards photos should be a good crash course on how to use forground and how to chose a good seascape subject good luck

[Omar Tayfour]

didnt imagine itd be that useful posting my pics for critique,thats some serious info for a newbie and hopefully by next week i would get it right,thanks guys

[Sean Warnick]

Hey Omar, I hope you come back to read this. I am also in the process of taking similar shots... yeah.. you need way more light, try going back to the same spot, either at dawn or dusk(depending where you live) so that you can get sunrise/sunset scenery in the upper half of your photo, also you need to leave your shutter open for much longer to leave the sea with much more motion after capturing, just that would improve the photo way more, if you do struggle with over exposure the investing in a cheap filter.

[Sean Warnick]

Originally Posted by Sean Warnick

Hey Omar, I hope you come back to read this. I am also in the process of taking similar shots... yeah.. you need way more light, try going back to the same spot, either at dawn or dusk(depending where you live) so that you can get sunrise/sunset scenery in the upper half of your photo, also you need to leave your shutter open for much longer to leave the sea with much more motion after capturing, just that would improve the photo way more, if you do struggle with over exposure try investing in a cheap filter.

sorry spell check "try"