Another Kick at the Cat

[FrankMi]

I'm trying again with another sunset. C & C please?

[rob marshall]

Frank

This is a good scene, and you caught it just at the right time of day, I think. You have the horizon at the centre, which I think always looks good on a perfect symmetry shot. But you don't quite have an exact symmetry reflection (see what a control freak I am), so I'd tend to crop the bottom which puts the horizon on the third line, and preserves that very nice cloud at the top. It also makes that diagonal reflection line of the trees much stronger.

I think you could also boost the colours and contrast here, and I did a quick edit, if that's OK? Good shot.

[ucci]

Great shot Frank. Love the strong colours and reflections. Bet they soon faded and were lost as the sun dropped. You caught them at exactly the right time. I like Rob's touch. One message I did get from it was that it underscored the importance of the 'thirds' rule. For me this was a classical example.

[FrankMi]

OK. I'm red-faced. I know better about the symmetry but dinner was calling and I rushed to finish. Fortunately one can sometimes do-over these things. I actually toned down the saturation and contrast because the last one I did was thought to be too intense and I have been finding myself going a tad too heavy on the saturation and contrast. LOL!

I really like the edit rob. Good job! I'm still trying to find my footing on where to draw the line on hue, saturation, and contrast but when I see it done well I realize where my effort needs improvement.

To get this shot, Ken, I started shooting about 20 minutes before sunset and the sky color continuously intensified until about 10 minutes after the sun set then it all quickly faded. The sun is actually below the horizon at this point so recovering the black tree line required about a +3EV exposure blended with the proper exposure for the sky just to get the green in the trees. I have tried to get a sunset about 4 times since I took this shot when the sky conditions looked promising and came up short every time. The clouds simply refused to cooperate! The only thing I have a harder time preparing for is a rainbow!

I love the bright colors but have found that many others seem to "see" the world in subtler tones and are uncomfortable with colors this bright. I suspect some folks may actually see the world in B & W.

Thanks for the comments Ken and Rob! Much appreciated!

[Geoff F]

Just one little thing occurs to me, Frank.

In the bottom right corner there is a small reflected branch in the water which I would clone away.

But sunsets are never easy so I think you have done well with this shot.

[FrankMi]

Thanks Geoff for the suggestion and kind comments. Yes I noticed that as well. I cleaned it up a bit, reversed the image, added a border and posted it in the #384 mini-competition to see how well it might fair.