Manhattan Beach

[Krystonite]

[carl yeomans]

very nice shots. id like to bet that these pics would make nice HDR's. and look even better.

[Saralonde]

#2 is my favorite with the off-center sun and diagonal lines. I might try to crop it so the horizon wasn't smack in the middle, perhaps taking off a little of the dark beach because the sky is so beautiful.

[RexK_Cozumel]

I saw these last night and I didn't comment because they are not in the critique section and I didnt want to say anything but here are my thoughts...

Compositionally I feel that the first one is the best since it is the only one where the horizen is not smack in the middle of the frame (even tho the sun is) The second and third photos seem very dark to me. I think it would help if you cropped off the bottom dark beach portions like Sara suggested which would help make the picture brighter and bring the horizen more to the third line. Killing two birds with one stone.

I was also wondering why you did not zoom in a tad to get that big overcast grey cloud out of the frame. (or just walk around a bit)

All that being said. The colors in number two are excellent. I like the silouettes of the palms in the third and the cloud formation in the first one is great.

[mdwsta4]

i like number two, but would crop it pretty heavily so it appeared more like a panorama. the foreground is too dark and doesn't contain much of anything. the very top of the clouds are dark and don't add much to the shot. a pano type crop would look great.

[Krystonite]

Originally Posted by RexK_Cozumel

I saw these last night and I didn't comment because they are not in the critique section and I didnt want to say anything but here are my thoughts...

Compositionally I feel that the first one is the best since it is the only one where the horizen is not smack in the middle of the frame (even tho the sun is) The second and third photos seem very dark to me. I think it would help if you cropped off the bottom dark beach portions like Sara suggested which would help make the picture brighter and bring the horizen more to the third line. Killing two birds with one stone.

I was also wondering why you did not zoom in a tad to get that big overcast grey cloud out of the frame. (or just walk around a bit)

All that being said. The colors in number two are excellent. I like the silouettes of the palms in the third and the cloud formation in the first one is great.

Thanks for the response.

Here's the thing... lol

On my mac, when I upload pictures, they are so BRIGHT to me. Even if I turn the contrast/brightness down on my monitor. I never really looked at my pics from another computer until a few weeks ago at work and they were unusually dark. So I checked them out on some more computers and they were just the same - dark. So it's really hard to gauge how I should have my exposure when they look so perfect on "my" computer. Any tips on that?

And when a horizon is dead center, it irritates me too. I don't know why I left these as that without cropping. For some reason, throwing the rule book out the window, the centered horizon appealed to me.

Lastly, for the gray shadows, my lens casts them. I don't know why and I don't know how to fix this. I'm a very amateur photographer and still trying to get my bearings on things. Any idea why my lenses would cast a shadow?

[RexK_Cozumel]

As far as the brightness factor on your computer you might want to run a calibration on your computer moniter which will bring the colors and brightness correct hopefully. I dont have a link to one off hand but there were some links in the general chit chat section if I remember correctly. I will have a look later if I have the time. (I am at work) As for the grey shadows appearing on your photos. This can be cause by one of two things. A poor fitting lens hood or stacking too many filters on your lens. What causes that shadow is actually the lens hood or the ring on the filter protruding out too far and getting partially into the frame.