NZ sunset

[Gaab]

This is one of the first shots I have really planned and gone specifically to shoot and worked on the final image properly.

I'm looking for opinions on anything I have done right or wrong.

I'm hoping I got the resizing right

[Colin Southern]

This is one of the first shots I have really planned and gone specifically to shoot and worked on the final image properly.

I'm looking for opinions on anything I have done right or wrong.

I'm hoping I got the resizing right

Hi Gary,

Great first attempt, but to my eye it looks flat and lacks "punch". Looking at the histogram it stops well short of a true highlight, and I felt it could benefit from a crop and some local contrast enhancement.

I gave it a Photoshop 30-Second make-over for you ...

[AB26]

Hi Gary,
Firstly, welcome to CIC. Hope you enjoy it here.

This is a very personal opinion and may not be shared by many others.
What I believe you have tried to achieve is to capture an image portraying what you have seen at that moment. Looking at the EXIF it is clear you have set up your camera for specific light conditions.

There is a lot of atmosphere in the image. It looks like a sunset after a stormy miserable day.
My eye is led from the bright green foreground to the water flowing over the rocks and then to the stormy water in the gully leading out to the open sea and the setting sun behind dark stormy clouds.
I can almost feel the chill in the air looking at the image.
I can see this one printed very large on canvas and hanging on a galery wall with backlighting.

IMHO you have captured the essence of the atmosphere in that moment of time, and that is what I love most about photography.

I love it. Keep it up.

[Mike Buckley]

I have really planned and gone specifically to shoot and worked on the final image properly.

That explains why it is so nice. Continue learning and practicing and you'll soon be on your way to producing spectacular photos.

[dje]

Very nicely done Gary. good composition and colours.

Dave

[Gaab]

Thank you for the comments.

I just need to get out and use the camera more and keep learning. Also the photoshop side of editing too.

[rawill]

Hi Gary

Well is Colin's better than yours?

Of course beauty is in eye of the beholder, and it this case Colins is different, I think that when he took away a little foreground it created a frame the led my eye more directly to the seascape.

So in that sense it is different, better, not sure.
Great shot that one of yours, wish it was mine.

And love that moody sky, and because of that, for me, Colin took away a fraction too much sky.

[Polar01]

Gary: had a little go at it myself, closer to yours but different. I took you image into ACR, then opened as a smart object in CS6 made a copy. Selected the bottom layer, opened it back up in ACR then, increased contrast+34, highlights+29, and clarity+17. Went back to CS6, selected the top layer, applied a mask to the sky (black), inverted it(now white) to allow the top layer's sky to show through with the forground of the bottom layer. With the increase of contrast now appears a greater difference between the light and dark areas which is helped also by the increase in the highlights. The increase in clarity gave more defination to the wave action of the water and made the rocks appear sharper. Hope the edit meet with your approval, if now I will gadly remove it.

Cheers:

Allan

[AB26]

water and made the rocks appear sharper.
Cheers:

Allan

Allan, be honest - Gary's image is sharper overall. That is what my 4eyes an screen tells me.