Sunrise at crane beach

[shekarcp]

Few photos taken at crane beach in Ipswitch,MA. C&C welcome















Cheers,
Chandra
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?ai...4&l=5e20bf419c

[Sai C]

Chandra,

I like the first shot the best, even though the bird happens to be smack in the middle of the frame. I would however consider cropping the top 10% out as it appears to have some vignetting. Nice framing for your shot. In the 3rd and 4th shots, the sun is too high up in the sky. One thing I might have tried out is to keep the sun totally out the frame and shoot just the color in the sky with the water in the foreground. Just my $0.02

In the 3rd and 4th images, the horizon makes the picture look like its tilted to the left. Did you shoot this hand held or did you use a tripod? I am thinking that it could purely be an optical illusion created by the "hill" (for lack of better word). The other thing that I'm curious about is your DOF. The water in the foreground appears to be out of focus. I'm guessing your DOF was good enough to capture sharp shots, but it was the motion in the water that makes it look out of focus??

Keep 'em coming
Cheers!
Sai

[carregwen]

Chandra

You shot this at f/9 on 1/3200s. You could have used f/16 to get more DOF and still had a very fast shutter speed. I know it's often said, but it helps composition-wise to get some foreground interest - in this case either a rock, or a boat, or even a line created by shoreline which will lead the viewer into the scene. I prefer #1. Landscapes are difficult as there is so much to get right. Keep at it!

[agaace]

My pick is #1 and #3. #1 has beautiful colors and nice composition, and I like the bird in the frame. #3 has some foreground, which I would love to see in #1. Unfortunately it's out of focus +1 for more DOF here. I read in some book some time ago, that a landscape has 3 parts: 1) foreground 2) subject 3) background, and if you leave out any of these, it will be missing 'something', which seems to be true in your case. I always try to look for some interesting shore line (preferably curvy) or some rocks in the water. Or at least something interesting on the horizon, some silhouettes, or even dramatic clouds can make the shot. Not easy, I know. Some beaches are beautiful, sandy and awesome for relaxing, but truly unphotogenic.. The ones that are photogenic are often rocky, and rather unfriendly.. but make beautiful subjects

[shekarcp]

Thanks guys for your comments...

@Sai - Thanks ...I did not use a tripod while shooting...Like your idea of not focusing the sun but focusing the sky.. Will try this out next time.
@Rob - Yes did not realize it at all.. All my photos were shot at f/9 and f/11.... The sunrise was so quick that I had very little time to think about it..
@Agaace - Looking at my photos I feel all my photos were shot around the sun... Your Cannon Beach, OR pic in your FB gallery is truly inspirational... Will try out such shots this weekend..

Thanks
Chandra

[agaace]

Good luck Chandra!
A check list before you go:
1) Make sure you know the place you're going to. If it's a place you've never been before, go there during the day, or at least 1 hour before sunset, so you've got time to look around and find a subject. It's also a good idea to search for existing pictures of the place. Pick the ones you like most and try to reproduce them - a great way to learn! Soon you'll figure out, you can not only reproduce those pictures, but you can make them even better!
2) Use a tripod. Never ever leave home for sunset shooting without a tripod.
3) If you want to catch those nice sun stars like in my picture - use f-stop like f/18, f/22 or bigger. This will also require longer exposure time, which will in turn smooth the water - a nice side effect. But, again, a tripod is a must.
4) Don't panic if the sun sets down too quickly. The actual sunset is just the beginning of the whole fun. You have around 1 hour after the sunset when you can take awesome shots - when the sky is colorful and not completely black yet (it looks very dark to the eye, but the camera sensor is way more sensitive to colors in the dark than human eye - my trick is to try to imagine the colors I see like 10x stronger). Try experimenting with long exposures - like 30 seconds, a minute, 5 minutes or longer! For this to work, you need to be familiar with manual mode and know how to use your camera's bulb mode. Also, when it's dark, autofocus usually doesn't work anymore, so you need to be able to use manual focusing. Requires a bit of extra effort, but with little practice satisfaction is guaranteed - you'll never again want to leave the beach before you need a torch to find your way back to the car