Sunset in the City

[Brownbear]

This is just a shot of the sunset over downtown Vancouver that I took because the sky was beautiful.

f/16 ISO 100 SS 1 sec Focal length 62 mm



I pushed the colours in PP and I wonder if I went a little too far with it?

Thank you.

[deetheturk]

Beautiful Christina!

[Kodiak]

Exhibiting your mastery, Christina? …very fine with me! ;-)

[Geoff F]

I just wonder about a very slight crop from the bottom and right side to give more emphasis to the sky. But I really do mean very slight.

[bnnrcn]

Lovely image Christina I would actually add some more clarity and vibrance and sharpen the image a little bit more.

[Shadowman]

Nicely done.

[John 2]

Lovely sky, lovely image Christina.

[Brownbear]

Thank you Kodiak, Geoff, Binnur, John Shadowman, and John 2!

Kodiak... Thank you! This is actually my first (second try) sunset shot in the city. That said, I read all the threads of other folks to learn.

Binnur... About a year ago you suggested that I try a sunset shot of this scene. Not sure why it took me so long to try. Likely intimidated by the thought.

Binnur & Geoff

Below is a revised image using your suggestions. Cropped a wee bit as suggested by Geoff, and increased vibrancy to +24 from +10, and clarity from 0 to +20. I think the water may be a wee bit too purple. This time I left the crane on the top of the far left building. I healed it out in the first try thinking it was distracting but I'm not sure if this is really the case.

Thank you to everyone!

[Rita]

Christina, I love this one especially with the slight crop. The colors are wonderful.

[Brownbear]

Thank you Rita. Truly appreciated. In future I will not be so shy about pushing the colours.

A special thank you to Binnur and Geoff!

Christina, I love this one especially with the slight crop. The colors are wonderful.

[ied]

Lovely deep colours. Great capture.

Irene

[bnnrcn]

Hi Christina, your edit looks better If you want to make colours look even better , just create a selective color adjustment layer and play with the sliders as a part of your learning curve (for instance play with magentas and yellows to see how the colors change), I'm sure you will get used to it in time and create very nice skies with lovely colors. While playing with colours I would suggest you should be careful to use the similar hues for sky and the sea. Did you edit the sea selectively, because I see a difference in the hues between the sea and the sky?

Unlucky of you that you have a straight line of clouds in the sky which is parallel to the sea shore and I think this makes the composition a bit dull, but never mind the sky changes evey day, because you have stepped into this kind of shots , you can always look for dramatic skies to shoot again

[Kaye Leggett]

Great shot and colour. I like the way the cropped shot now gives more emphasis to the blues. In the first shot I would suggest cropping some of the sky and thereby making the orange the predominant colour - makes another interesting variation.

[IzzieK]

It really doesn't matter to me which one -- they are both equally as good, cropped or not, but that is just me...

[Stagecoach]

Beautiful colours Christina. Do not be intimidated by taking these sunset and sunrise shots, they are not difficult if you have a reasonable subject.

We hear loads of comments like 'oh no not another sunrise or sunset they are two a penny' but so are bugs and people shots

This one is unique, will never be repeated and that horizontal transition in the sky helps make it.

Grahame

[Brownbear]

Thank you Irene, Binnur, Kay, Izzie and Grahame for the helpful and kind comments, and also the great advice. Truly appreciated.

Binnur... Thank you for the advice on post processing. I will play with a few images as a PP exercise. At this moment this image feels very colourful to me. I increased the saturation/vibrance to the entire image however I likely applied a curves adjustment (shadows or highlights) selectively either to just the highrises, or just the sky. Something that I will make sure I'm aware of for future. Yes, I was very limited with the composition. I will have to explore new locales.

Kaye... Yes, I can see that image in there, and I think it is a very nice suggestion. I'm just rather fond of big skies.

Grahame... Thank you for your encouragement and advice. Truly appreciated!

Thank you to everyone!

[Manfred M]

Nice shots Christine. I've been too busy shooting to spend a lot of time with some of the postings.

The nice thing about these types of shots is that there is no right or wrong way to do them, so let the artist in you run wild. I see you've used vibrance, rather than saturation, and while that is a good thing in many situations (vibrance is designed to have less of an effect on the areas that are in the skin tones, while saturation is more of an across the board effect), I find that you m ight want to see what changing the saturation does for you. It will definitely impact the warmer tones in this image, and is something I will do for "magic hour" shots as well as fall colour shots (as long as there are no people in the scene).

[Brownbear]

Thank you Manfred. That you would take the time to comment and advise is truly appreciated. Yes, up until this point in time I have very rarely the saturation slider, and on the rare occasion that I have used it, it has been a very slight adjustment, usually just to increase the saturation in a specific colour in a bird. I will heed your advice, and let the artist in me run wild.

Nice shots Christine. I've been too busy shooting to spend a lot of time with some of the postings.

The nice thing about these types of shots is that there is no right or wrong way to do them, so let the artist in you run wild. I see you've used vibrance, rather than saturation, and while that is a good thing in many situations (vibrance is designed to have less of an effect on the areas that are in the skin tones, while saturation is more of an across the board effect), I find that you m ight want to see what changing the saturation does for you. It will definitely impact the warmer tones in this image, and is something I will do for "magic hour" shots as well as fall colour shots (as long as there are no people in the scene).

[Mike Buckley]

This is just a shot of the sunset over downtown Vancouver

Nope. Both versions are a lot more than just a shot. Well done!

[Manfred M]

Thank you Manfred. That you would take the time to comment and advise is truly appreciated. Yes, up until this point in time I have very rarely the saturation slider, and on the rare occasion that I have used it, it has been a very slight adjustment, usually just to increase the saturation in a specific colour in a bird. I will heed your advice, and let the artist in me run wild.

Be bold!

It's not unusual for me to use settings in the 25 to 50 range for both clarity and vibrance (this is something I picked up from one of Scott Kelby's videos). I will be at the bottom end of the scale (or even lower) when there are people in the image; but l will be less conservative, especially when I am pushing towards a bit of a funky look.

A lot of people stay away from the saturation control, but again, depending on the colours in the image (especially where there are no people in it), it can give some really interesting results by boosting the warm tones in the image.

The other thing you might want to work with is to see what a vignette does for you. With the bright colours spilling of the edges of the image, darkening the corners will focus the viewer's attention on the centre of the image. A light touch is all that is needed, as once you start noticing the vignette, you have often been too heavy-handed in its use.