Toward evening

[Justan]

...

[Jose L]

Me gusta más la primera imagen, creo que la composición gana con la roca. Por lo demás, composición, luz, todo bien conseguido. Saludos.

[Eric Myrvaagnes]

Both very pleasing.

Eric

[Justan]

Me gusta más la primera imagen, creo que la composición gana con la roca. Por lo demás, composición, luz, todo bien conseguido. Saludos.

Muchas gracias. También creo que la primera imagen tiene gran color, pero prefiero la segunda imagen debido a la potencia de la escena y casi nunca llego a ver el sol sobre el Océano!

(Thank you very much. I too think the first image has great color, but prefer the second image because of the power of the scene and I almost never get to see the sun set over the ocean! Hope that translated okay!!)

[Justan]

Both very pleasing.

Eric

Thank you.

[JohnKoerner]

Both are very pretty Justan, and very similar IMO, composition-wise, as each has the subject directly in the center.

I think this works better in the first image, because the second shot with the sun is too "blinding" IMO. In fact, the blinding light of the second image even makes me squint a bit to see the top image.

If you would have shifted the composition a bit to the right on the second shot (placing the sun a bit to the left), not only would it make the viewer not have to squint his eyes as much, but would have opened-up a bit more of the beach on the right. I am not much of a landscape guy, so take that with a grain of salt

Other than this nitpick, the mood and settings are beautiful in both images.

Jack


.

[Enda Cavanagh]

Hi Justan
2 very nice shots. I love the tones. Both give off a very calm peaceful vibe. Photos that make me think I want to be there at that moment work for me. I would aggree with John though that the subjects are too central on the image. I prefer the 1st image but I think the rock would look better off centre. However I also like the gentle fall of the top of the dune grass as you go left to right and where it changes direction on the right side of the image. Maybe it could look better if you were further to the right so that the rock is located behind the dip (if you know what I mean) and have them both off centre or alternatively if you could get further to the right, keeping the dip to the right and have the rock to the left of centre. JMHO 

[Justan]

Hi Jack and Enda,

Thanks to both of you for your thoughtful comments. I'm going to cite selected parts and reply below.

Jack >…the second shot with the sun is too "blinding" IMO. In fact, the blinding light of the second image even makes me squint a bit to see the top image

The blinding element is to a degree psychological but I like it in part due to this. I admit that I am smitten by this image. I did an eval print that is roughly 2’ x 5’ and it is just fabulous, even though I can’t get *quite* the brilliance out of the paper that can be obtained by the LCD. I’ll have to review it long enough to get bored before I will be rational about it. But it definitely grabs the attention of anyone who sees it.

That said I'm certain that the sun being on center makes the image a bit static. What I find compelling about this image is that if one acclimates to looking into the sun, (in the image of course, not outside), it causes the imagination to fire off in interesting ways.

Jack >but would have opened-up a bit more of the beach on the right.

Other comments I received were to include a bit more of the grasses in the foreground and to include less of the sky. The former is certainly debatable and the latter is inconceivable to me. If I'm lucky enough to get a clear shot in future beach sunsets, I’ll definitely follow advise such as your thoughtful comment.

Enda > prefer the 1st image but I think …. Maybe it could look better if you were further to the right so that the rock is located behind the dip…

Other comments have echoed this as well. In future sessions I’ll get closer to the water so that the sweep of the surf can predominate more on the right side. Of course the complexity here is that doing stitches of surf is not so easy to do properly. That detail, plus excluding some other undesired elements played a role in the choice of vantage points.

BTW, the rock in the composition is called Haystack Rock and it’s found at Cannon Beach, Oregon. Someone suggested doing a study of a kind with Monet’s Haystack studies (scroll to the bottom of the linked site to see the images). I think this  a great idea and it will give me the opportunity to re-visit this place periodically.

On this point, does anyone know of a good book on doing painterly/impressionistic techniques with photography? I’d like to learn more about this and the web references I've come across are too minimal to be of a lot of use

Thanks again!

[rcarpenter3d]

I think those look excellent. Really nice color tones. Are these HDR images? If so did you use your cameras auto braketing feature, or did you do it manually?

Either way, excellent work.

[Justan]

Hi,

Thanks very much and welcome to the forum!

These weren’t HDR panos. There wasn’t enough tonal space to require that kind of capture.

When i do HDR, I don’t like auto bracket. I typically manually pick my darkest, lightest and middle areas, and set the exposures (usually 2 or 3 but up to 7) to capture what I'm after.

[PasZ]

Incredible job, and nice composition!!!

Pascual

[Justan]

Thank you!