Children at Sunset

[ginte1967]

Hi everyone,

This photo of my son was taken at Easter at a place called Lucky Bay on the coast in Western Australia. We were setting up our camper trailer & I thought this was too beautiful to miss.

I am wondering what you would do post processing to improve this if at all. It's really the first opportunity I've had to get my Nikon D90 out & have a bit of a play.

I apologise if I have got this post backwards - I've been trying to contain our two great danes whilst posting this.

Camera : Nikon D90
Aperture : F13
Exposure : 1/30
Focal Length : 24mm
Lens : 18 - 55mm 1:3.5 - 5.6
ISO : 400
Centre weighted & fill in flash used.

All advice/assistance greatly appreciated.

Cheers
Gina

[WooD]

I really like the colors in the sky, but the tilt is kinda bothering me. I think it would have been better if you had shot it with the horizon level.

[OsmosisStudios]

You were using a flash (albeit as fill): why was the ISO and shutterspeed so high/long?

I know you should drag the shutter to get the sky, but thats do-able at faster shutterspeeds: the big thing that bothers me with it is the motion blur.

The tilt is also very strange.

[cphoniball]

I'm just a beginner, but here's my two cents.

First thing, which wood and osmosis mentioned, the tilt... it's usually just disorienting, unless there's some specific reason for the tilt. For example, I saw a picture the other day where a bridge was framed in between two other people, and tilt was necessary to capture her expression - so it worked. I don't really see a point for the tilt here. Also, on an unrelated note, I would have dialed down your fill flash just a little, or else darken the foreground in PS.. the brightness of the foreground distracts me from the boy and the sky.

As for the post processing, I would probably boost the contrast a little bit, as that looks like a beautiful sky.

[ginte1967]

Thank you for your feedback.

The D90 is new to me & I was trying not to get caught up in the program modes.
Which makes my guesswork a little out from your comments.

Thought F13 would be ok as it was a little bright over the water & I didn't have a filter on the lens as for the shutter speed, I was trying not to overexpose the scene with the fill-in flash as I didn't want Rhys as a silohette, although I took one that way with a level horizon.

I get what your saying about the tilt - I can straighten this in the editing software I have (Ulead PhotoImpact 12) although I should probably look at something a little more comprehensive that's going to serve me better in the long run.

Time is a big factor for me at the moment as I don't have enough of it to be able to play uninterupted - I have signed up for a digital photography course for beginners in the hope that it will allow me to understand things better.

Cphoniball, it was a lovely sunset, we had heard that storms were about to roll in & the clouds were in two levels. The lower ones rotating clockwise & the upper one anti-clockwise - was quite fascinating to watch.

Again, thank you all for posting a comment.
Gina