Photo by Lauren Griffith Topsail Island, NC

My 13 year old daughter Lauren photographed this scene while on

vacation. She is a budding photographer and I feel has a good eye.

Please be honest but gentle with your critiques.

Thank you and Happy New Year!

She did a great job at exposing for a dramatic sky. Something that could be done to improve the image would be to combine several images, each exposed for the different parts of the image. That way she could achieve a dramatic sky and a well exposed lower part of the image. I don't know if that would be more trouble than she wants to bother with, but other than that I can't think of anything I would change. If she's interested I'm sure there would be several people here who could explain the process well or point her towards a good tutorial.

Hi Lauren, I think this is a great shot! I love the cloud patterns and the way the sky darkens at the top of the frame. Good choice of a portrait format instead of landscape. I also like the way you framed the building to the bottom right. If I could change anything, I would probably work the shadows and highlights in photoshop to try and get a little more detail out of the building. I am sure the camera has captured more detail that can be extracted. Overall a lovely picture. Congratulations.

A few suggestions...  Learn to shoot on Manual exposure mode so that you can control the aperture and shutter speed.  Use a tripod.  Look for a more interesting foreground (e.g. a shrub or tree is usually nicer for landscapes than a building).  If you want an alternative to spending a lot of time using computer software, consider a graduated neutral density filter to brighten the foreground.  It could've worked here by holding it on an angle roughly paralleling the roofline on the right side.  Good luck, Jeff