Couple guys fishing at sunset

[lovelife65]

Bellingham Bay - at Larabee State Park Beach.
Blew some of the sky, but the lighting, water and clouds were pretty so here it is.

Maybe a different lens would have worked better? I used just my standard 35mm (52) f1.4 lens.

Just a tiny bit of post processing.

Thanks for taking a look.

Sharon

[bnnrcn]

Lovely colors and scene Sharon I think the image needs levelling . Also if you crop about half of the water I think it would make a better composition in pano format (Usually a horizon near to center makes a dull composition unless it is a reflection image like some mountains and their full reflections on the water).

[Manfred M]

+1 to Binnur's comments.

Something else to watch out for when you shoot into the sun is lens flare. The light hitting the glass elements inside the lens bounces around and reduces overall contrast, so this is something you pretty well have to look at boosting contrast in this type of shot.

Here is one view that incorporates Binnur's suggestion as well as my suggestion.

[lovelife65]

Lovely colors and scene Sharon I think the image needs levelling . Also if you crop about half of the water I think it would make a better composition in pano format (Usually a horizon near to center makes a dull composition unless it is a reflection image like some mountains and their full reflections on the water).

Thank you Binnur for your helpful comments.
I think a different lens would have been a better choice. Too much cropping means poor composition

Here is a bit more work on the image.

Have a wonderful New Years Day

Sharon

[lovelife65]

+1 to Binnur's comments.

Something else to watch out for when you shoot into the sun is lens flare. The light hitting the glass elements inside the lens bounces around and reduces overall contrast, so this is something you pretty well have to look at boosting contrast in this type of shot.

Here is one view that incorporates Binnur's suggestion as well as my suggestion.

Yeah, always difficult shooting into the sun. Your mods make some nice difference in the image.
Thank you all for taking the time to teach.

Sharon

[Shadowman]

Not sure if a different lens would make a difference unless you wanted to capture more sky. If you wanted to align your elements differently (the boat, sun, and mountains, or also reflection); then positioning yourself at a different angle would be the only option. Nicely done.

[bnnrcn]

Second version looks better Sharon .If you are into landscape photography, you might need some zoom lenses as it is not always possible to move back or forth to get the composition you want by the sea or on the hills

Thank you Binnur for your helpful comments.
I think a different lens would have been a better choice. Too much cropping means poor composition

Here is a bit more work on the image.

Have a wonderful New Years Day

Sharon

[lovelife65]

Second version looks better Sharon .If you are into landscape photography, you might need some zoom lenses as it is not always possible to move back or forth to get the composition you want by the sea or on the hills

Absolutely makes sense. Right now I just have three primes for my xpro2. 16mm, 35mm and 90.
1.5 crop factor. Sometimes I get excited and in a hurry. Limited in options right now so more landscape than anything....such a beautiful place I live so ...
I do love street too, so when I get to cities that is what I try to focus on.

Thanks again all.
Learning tons here just looking at others work. Helps in things beyond just the technical side.

Sharon

[madcrow]

+1 for Binnur's comments.
+1 for Manfred's edit.
+1 for Sharon second edit.

[NorthernFocus]

I love the clouds, hill silhouettes and the pastel colors. Nice job with placement of the sun as well. Most people early in their photo journey simply center it in the frame. The edited version is really an improvement. Offsetting the horizon made a big difference as did kicking the contrast a bit. Nicely done.

[Mike Buckley]

Very nice combination of shapes along with warm and cool colors.

Too much cropping means poor composition

Not necessarily, Sharon. I suppose that depends on how you define "too much."

Ironically, your image is an excellent example of when the cropping doesn't indicate that a poor composition was the culprit. Notice that the cropping was done only at the top and bottom with none or mostly none at the sides. Your camera sensor has a different aspect ratio than the cropped image, so it's understandable that when using just one capture you would have to crop at the top and bottom. If you wanted to make that image without doing any cropping, you would have to make multiple captures that would then be stitched together. The possibility of making the image using multiple captures doesn't remotely indicate to me that your image made using just one capture is the result of a poor composition.

[Manfred M]

Too much cropping means poor composition

I think that depends on what you mean by "too much".

I always crop when I print as my camera format does not match standard photo paper sizes. I also try to shoot with a bit of "headroom" around the images so that the composition is not too tight, as it is far easier to crop in post than to build up new material.

How much is too much? I'll leave that to your own personal judgment. Unless you are shooting an image stitched panorama, the aspect ratio you have in this image can only be accomplished by cropping. If you are displaying on a computer screen with a standard 2K display (around 2MP) and are shooting with a 24MP camera, you can crop quite severely and get away with it. On the other hand, if you are printing on an inkjet printer that has a native resolution of 300dpi or 360dpi, then you have a lot less latitude for cropping.

[lovelife65]

Very nice combination of shapes along with warm and cool colors.



Not necessarily, Sharon. I suppose that depends on how you define "too much."

Ironically, your image is an excellent example of when the cropping doesn't indicate that a poor composition was the culprit. Notice that the cropping was done only at the top and bottom with none or mostly none at the sides. Your camera sensor has a different aspect ratio than the cropped image, so it's understandable that when using just one capture you would have to crop at the top and bottom. If you wanted to make that image without doing any cropping, you would have to make multiple captures that would then be stitched together. The possibility of making the image using multiple captures doesn't remotely indicate to me that your image made using just one capture is the result of a poor composition.

That all makes sense. I get what you are saying Mike thanks for the input :-). When cropping, I think it's best done in PS, right (instead of LR) because the quality isn't as impacted.
I'm still new with my fujifilm camera, and this is the first time I don't have a zoom lens. I never really liked the zooms with the DSLR Canon I had, even though reviews were good. I LOVE this new camera though, it's so fantastic, that I want to learn far more than I did with the Canon on how to take truly good photographs.

[lovelife65]

I think that depends on what you mean by "too much".

I always crop when I print as my camera format does not match standard photo paper sizes. I also try to shoot with a bit of "headroom" around the images so that the composition is not too tight, as it is far easier to crop in post than to build up new material.

How much is too much? I'll leave that to your own personal judgment. Unless you are shooting an image stitched panorama, the aspect ratio you have in this image can only be accomplished by cropping. If you are displaying on a computer screen with a standard 2K display (around 2MP) and are shooting with a 24MP camera, you can crop quite severely and get away with it. On the other hand, if you are printing on an inkjet printer that has a native resolution of 300dpi or 360dpi, then you have a lot less latitude for cropping.

Thanks Grumpy. Yes, that sounds perfectly logical. This is a 24MP, I think as long as I crop in PS vs LR the image doesn't suffer as much. I may experiment some and actually print some things, just to see how far I can go without killing it

[lovelife65]

I love the clouds, hill silhouettes and the pastel colors. Nice job with placement of the sun as well. Most people early in their photo journey simply center it in the frame. The edited version is really an improvement. Offsetting the horizon made a big difference as did kicking the contrast a bit. Nicely done.

Thank you Dan, I appreciate your comments. I'm learning so much here from all you fantastic artists. Thank you for your time.
I wanted to capture the sun against the fishermen, but also include the contrasting gloomy clouds and the differences in the light on the water. I tried not to blow the sun out too bad, and metered away from it... but so hard not to blow a little of it.