folly beach pier Folly Pier at Night

Okay - this I LOVE!! Let me tell you the things I love about it. First of all, the clouds are fabulous sitting in the distance like big strong giants waiting to attack. I love the lights set along the pier and the reflections in the water. I love the different little "roofs" at three different points along the pier. And I love the details given by the lines in the pier supports (I ought to know what they're called ... but I don't!) Nice ... very nice!

Lou Ann-As always, thanks for your comments. I also like this shot for a lot of the same reasons you named. My only question before I post this one for critique is do you think that the image is too dark? To be honest, I'm sure it is underexposed by some amount (I don't have a cable release yet so I can't use the bulb setting on my camera without having to hold it down, which obviously will shake the camera). I adjusted the image a bit--I'll attach it to this link. I'll also apologize ahead of time because I STILL have not found out how to resize pictures! Thanks for resizing and posting my other shots--I really appreciate it. Let me know if you think it looks better--I think the clouds suffer a bit with lightening.

Smaller...

Well, personally, I think that the darker one is a bit more appealing ... but I can't put my finger on the "why". Actually, it's not a huge difference (in my opinion). The bonus with the brighter one is that the cloud banks are better defined. I think that those clouds are one of the better assets of this image. But for some reason, the darker one speaks "nighttime" to me more than does the brighter one.

How's this for something completely different? :-)

To be honest, I'm with you in that I think the darker one is more appealing. I guess I was just thinking of what would please the more professional photographers on this site and I felt like someone would say it was underexposed. But, I think I'll stick with the darker version. Thanks for the input!

 

I like your attached version--what did you do to it? Sharpening? Contrast? I like how the lights are highlighted as well as the reflections on the water (which along with the clouds, are my favorite part of this shot). I love how the pier lights come out as bright "stars." Again though, I didn't know if that is how (according to the pros) artificial lights are "supposed" to look. I always get them to come out like that but see few other shots with that look so I was kind of thinking I did something "wrong" in making them appear that way. However, I guess since I like them it shouldn't matter if they are perfectly done or a rookie "mistake." Do you have any opinion on them?

Well, you'll have to ask a better photographer than I am about the lights or technical things like that. I just know what I like. :-)

 

What did I do? To be honest, I just wanted to see what my "autolevels" function would do to it, and that's what came out. After using "autolevels", I opened up the regular levels window and pulled the slider for the highlights a bit to the left, but besides that not much. :-)

What do you think? I appreciate any feedback! Please check out the

discussion that has taken place already--I'd be interested in knowing

your thoughts!

Tyler, I love this picture...My friend lives in Charleston, and Ive been here. I actually fell in a giant hole in the sand. In front of ALOT of people. So fond memories of this beach. Back to the picture, I love the color. I see where other people have changed it up a little bit. But I like your original best. It gives the sense of dusk. Like you have captured the last moment of daylight. Great work.

Hey Tyler, now I've found your portfolio and you have some great shots here. I particularly like this one. Black and white works well (must remember to try this myself) and the clouds and reflections are just perfect.