Sunset's a Pair

[Larry Heath]

Two question here, one I’d like to hear peoples preferences as to with or without foreground elements and second is there too much saturation in the water? Any and all other comments are welcome as well of course. Harsh frankness is just as well appreciated as kind comments.

With foreground



Without foreground




Later Larry

[Christoph C. Feldhaim]

That tiny touch of the "hand of man" is good to have in the image.
I'd not crop it out for purist reasons or whatever.
So its #1 for me.
Nice shot and colors.

[Slobodan Blagojevic]

Both pictures seem to have practically identical foreground... what's the deal?

[Larry Heath]

Well I am not sure if I like the people in the water, the beach chairs as well as the stump in the foreground, so I edited them out of the second shot. As has already been pointed out the foreground is a bit (lot?) too dark and you may be finding it difficult to even see these items down in the mud. I suppose what is ultimately going on is me trying to make something out of a file that has really very little there to begin with. Silk purses and sows ears, that sort of thing. Not working so well.

[Larry Heath]

The first is the original, well a jpg of the NEF with no mods; the second is the latest iteration, including a gradient for the foreground. The original frame was exposed to try and just get a usable sun disk. I have been trying to learn just how far down in the mud you can go with the D800, reputed to have large capabilities in this respect, as well as fix the inherent problems that come about while doing this. Lots of ugliness going on in the foreground sand, I have yet to figure out how to deal with.

Later Larry

[Paulo Bizarro]

In terms of light, #1 is the one I prefer. I expect to have some darker foreground if I am looking into the sun. So, opening up the foreground, like in #3, does not work for me.

In terms of composition, I would have got lower on the ground, just to frame the stalks, sea, and sun; the sand is less interesting to me.

[sdwilsonsct]

Lots of good elements here. Maybe too many? The angle of the beach doesn't lead anywhere particular, the sky objects are neither centered or 1/3ed. But its all grist to the learning mill.