Jeffry Hill

[John 2]

Spotted driving home the other evening. I was desperate to use the sunset somehow and luckily, the road was quiet and the camera was hanging over the passenger side head rest.

Fuji XT1
23mm Fuji x lens
1/280th @ f4.0 -1.33 comp. ISO 200

[deetheturk]

Very nice John, love the colours!

[TonyW]

That's rather special. The reflection of the sky in the road against the silhouette of the person and the green makes the picture.

[Mike Buckley]

The reflection of the sky in the road against the silhouette of the person and the green makes the picture.

Agreed. For me, the bright sky detracts from that area of the scene. That explains why I would crop to eliminate the sky. Sunsets are common in photography, not the highway scene with the man.

[terrib]

The colors are very nice and I love that there is a person walking on the road. Not sure if Mike is saying he'd crop the entire sky. I wouldn't go that far but would crop out the top part. The clouds are pretty so it is tempting to leave them in, but by cropping and leaving just a sliver of the dark cloud above the sun it makes the man walking the road more of the subject, brings the eye more to that beautiful road, but still leaves your sunset. But it's a personal preference and what you have presented is beautiful!

[Suzan J]

Hi John: I agree that the golden glow of the road makes this picture special. I would second Mike's opinion that the bright sky is not even needed.

[Mike Buckley]

Not sure if Mike is saying he'd crop the entire sky.

Yep, that's what I'm suggesting. I would crop to include all of the land so the warm glow immediately below the horizon remains in the image.

[Shadowman]

Nicely done.

[Geoff F]

I think this is one of those scenes where there are several crop options and each one would produce a different effect.

For example, slightly crop the foreground (possibly go square) and concentrate more on the sky.

Crop a little from the sky which would make the road appear longer and more dramatic in the foreground.

Crop from both top and bottom to increase the width, maybe 5 x 4 ratio.

Crop a little from the bottom and more from the left side to produce a 2 x 3 ratio so the road is running straight towards that dramatic sky without any distractions from the left side.

And I'm sure there are other alternatives; including leaving it as posted here.

[bnnrcn]

Hi John, this is a great image and I also like the PP work very much. There might be some good crop alternatives but I actually like the image as it is

[IzzieK]

I would leave it as is, John...I like the overall story of the shot with many elements incorporated in it and different interpretation of each elements. Very nice...

[KimC]

This is just gorgeous. I agree with Geoff that there are a variety of ways to crop... but it's a WOW as is too :-)

[Nicks Pics]

Cool. That wet road made some great reflections you mode good use of. Did you enhance it much in post?

[jcuknz]

I agree about cropping the sky because it is 'all there' already reflected in the wet road .... sunsets are basically overdone but without the sky you have something interesting.

[Stagecoach]

Very good John,

It's mostly been said already and it's one of those images that has various crop option.

For me, if it were mine, I would crop to the top of the dark cloud line.

Why, it focuses your mind on the story which is a man walking home from work seeing that wonderful view of the sun setting at the end of the day and it's colour.

As for sunsets being overdone, well, there are obviously those that either don't get the opportunity to watch them or perhaps have not mastered capturing them successfully

[John 2]

A big thank you for al of the comments. I should say first of all that this was a grab shot. I had little time to stop the car and position myself before the Walker got too far away to be useful (23mm lens) and so in camera composition was minimal. I just had time to dial in some compensation. And so its not surprising that there are several other crops that might be applied. This in fact, is a crop from an original landscape image. I wanted to post it but it looks like I have modified the original (bad practice!). I am not so sure that I would want to crop to the tree line. It's a bit tight and I would have to get rid of that telegraph pole (might upset the locals if they couldn't order their pizza) and in retrospect, I think the story it telsl is of someone walking into a glorious sunset. The only other crop that might appeal to me is that suggested by Geoff. A square crop that loses some of the FG and on a second look, the highlight in the sky needs to be reduced. Something like:.

[Nicks Pics]

It works for me that way.

[JohnRostron]

I feel that no crop is needed. The reflection on the road needs the sky above to complement it.

[IzzieK]

I like both, John...

[John 2]

Thanks Nick, thanks John, thanks Izzie for the additional comments.