Turners Beach Sunset

Thanks Chris for your kind comment.

Regards, Mehrdad.

Wish I was there because of the scenery.  You have followed the rule of thirds and I particularly liked the golden textures of the water. IMHO the sky with the loss of highlights is problematic to my sense of aesthetics.  I think you could have auto-bracketed and then used HDR software to tame the highlights.   Just my personal opinion. 

Many thanks Tony for your kind comment and I do appreciate your constructive critique my friend

Respectfully, Mehrdad.

How do you think about this edition Tony, do you think this one looks better regarding the sky? Please kindly let me know your opinion with thanks.

Regards, Mehrdad.

It is a little better. 

The Problem from an aesthetic view which is personal:  The completely white areas in the sky has lost any details and attracts the eyes.

Objective: to minimize or eliminate those white areas without details:

Solution:

1. shoot in Raw (you have more dynamic range

2. Auto bracket or manually take a minimum of 3 shots 2 stops apart

3. Use HDR software to process.

4. If necessary use layers to bring back areas that don't look nice from the HDR processing

References:

Stuck in Customs:

HDR processing can make an image look unnatural but it is possible to make it look normal

Here is one of mine as an example

I use free Nik HDR software with Lightroom 5 -

Thank you very much my friend for your kind, detailed description and the links. 

Firstly, you have done a great job with your HDR photo, and I quite like it.

I always shoot RAW, and still do the bracketing, but did not have much success with HDR using Photoshop and Lightroom (end result was unrealistic). I found the combination of shooting RAW (still bracketing to choose the best exposure in the post processing) and tweeting in "DXO Pro+Photoshop+Lightroom" more helpful in my workflow. It gives me more "realistic results".

Again, it's only me and the fact that I did not have much success with HDR, but as I mentioned, you have done a great job with HDR in your sample photo.

Again, many many thanks for your time and information. I do appreciate your constructive critique and would love to have much more of them, as I believe this is the only way that I will be able to improve my expertise.

Respectfully, Mehrdad.

You are welcome. Get the free NIK software and see if it helps. Once it is installed you can get to it from Lightroom.  I never liked Photoshop HDR.

I have mostly stopped writing critiques like this because most of the time, people don't find it helpful and often take it negatively.

Many thanks again Tony, my friend for everything. I shall try the Nik software.

As I mentioned before, I would love to hear critiques on my images. Please do critique my images, or I will not improve.

Respectfully, Mehrdad.