tylerwind

Sylvie, Torfinn, and Lannie--Thanks for the kind words...they are much appreciated!

 

I'm glad you like this one, Lannie. I thought the clouds and shades of "sunrise burnt orange" made it interesting but it really wasn't received as warmly as I would have anticipated so your feedback and comparison if very valuable and appreciated!

Any thoughts or comments are appreciated. This shot is without

filters, PS, or post-processing. Thanks for viewing my work!

Jan--Terrific composition and a very pleasing shot. Your shutter speed could not be better! I also like the lighting...very well done!

Thanks for the words, Steve!

 

Wow...if I can just get a 4/4 rating, I'll have one of every rating from 3/3 to 7/7 without having 2 of any particular rating. I love the consistency you get around here! :)

 

Thanks for stopping by to view this...please let a quick comment and/or a rating and let me know your thoughts--I'll be sure to return the favor!

Any thoughts or comments are greatly appreciated!

Cole, JK, and Jan--Thanks for all the comments. They are most appreciated! Jan--it may be easy to you, but I spent 2 minutes trying to level the horizon and NEVER get it level, especially when I'm zoomed out to 300mm like in this shot. I guess I'll just have to start correcting mine in PS. :) Did you see that I do have ONE moon shot in my "Life on the Docks" folder??? It's not very good...but I shot it and put it there just for you! :)

Hey Lindsay! I like your use of the snow footprints in this shot and how the sun comes out as a "star." One thing you have to be careful of is your metering when shooting with snow AND the sun in the composition. Look at your snow in this shot--can you see that is looks a tad bit grey instead of "snow white?" This is because your camera always "wants" to make the "average" color shade grey. So in a shot like this when the majority of the shot is white, it tries to make it grey. The same is true if you have a lot of black in shot--go shoot a close up of a black cat or dog and your camera will try to make their fur grey instead of black. You always had the sun working against you in a way for this shot because it is a bit, huge, super bright spot in the sky and tricks your camera into exposing the shot so that the sky is properly exposed and the foreground is too dark. What I've been taught is that in general, unless there are clouds hiding the sun, you are going to struggle to get good pictures with the sun in your composition unless the sun is very, very low (ie-ON the horizon!) just because it is simply too bright if there is no clouds or fog shading it (and even then it's still too bright if it's very high at all). Also--do you have a polarizer for your camera? They don't work well directly into the sun but they do make the sky a darker blue and eliminate all the glare and reflection you get off of water and snow, which makes your picture a bit more "crisp." One last bit of advice that really helped me and then I'll shut up---although it is a "rule" that is DEFINITELY made to be broken, the "Rule of Thirds" is usually a good general guide for composition. This "rule" states that your horizon should either be at the lower 1/3 mark of your shot or the upper 1/3, but NOT in the middle of your composition. Here you are smack in the middle--you could probably have made this a bit more eye catching by moving your composition up (and emphasizing the sky) or moving it down (which would emphasize the foreground snow). Again, that rule is made to be broken but in general, it is valid 90% of the time.

 

Since I typed so much let me reiterate that I liked this shot (that's why I clicked on it and took the time to comment!) I'm by no means a photography expert but I just wanted to pass on what others have taught me. You seem to have a desire to learn more so I'm just trying to help you just like many others helped me a few months back. Keep up the good work and as always, let me know if you have any questions. If you just post a follow-up to any of my comments I'll see it when I check for follow-up comments to my critiques. Take care!

Yinka--Thank you for your comments on this shot and my other post as well. I'm actually at home (just down the road from you, in Virginia) for Easter so I don't have any editing software but will correct the horizon when I get back to Charleston. By the way, I took the last step of my medical boards earlier this week and I think it went well--we'll see! I should be back on here more now that my boards are out of the way and I'll be sure to make a stop by your portfolio--I apologize that I have not visited in so long. I assure you it is one of my favorite places on this website! And, as a devoutly Christian doctor, you are probably more like me than anyone else on photo.net so I look forward to following your work more closely in the future! Thanks again for your comments and I wish you and your family a most blessed Easter holiday! God bless, my friend!

Hey Lindsay! Your palm trees caught my eye so I clicked on your portfolio and see that you are just getting started and looking for advice--welcome to Photo.net! I'm relatively new myself so I'm not sure I have much to offer you but I'm glad to help however I can. Is this shot taken in Missouri? I didn't realize there were palm trees in Missouri! Anyway, I think you had a good eye to spot this scene, which has potential to be a great photo. Your composition, timing (meaning, time of day, or "lighting"), and exposure need some work but I assure you that will come with time. Please let me know what specific advice you are looking for and I'll be happy to help as best I can. Again, I only started into this about 8 months ago (and I'm an orthopaedic surgeon so it's not like I get to do this everyday) but in that time I've gone from not knowing how to use a camera to having my pictures sold in gift shops around Charleston and people approaching me requesting sports and portrait pictures. So, I have gained a tad bit of knowledge in my short time as a photographer. One thing that really helped me was to look at the work, details, and comments of people who shot similar scenes to what I was shooting and had excellent results. For anything with palm trees, water, or specifically hammocks with palm trees, you have to check out the portfolio of Vincent Tylor, who has become a good friend of mine and my favorite photo.net photographer. He has taught me 90% of what I know and you can learn so much from just cruising through his work. He has really taken me under his wing and helped me tremendously. If you are looking for some advice, just let me know and I'll be happy to help. Let me know what questions you have, where you struggle, what kind of camera you have, etc. and I'll do my best to help. I saw you liked to shoot sports---I played sports all day every day while growing up and continue to play several even now. Sports photography is actually how I got started into all of this. I don't have hardly any sports pics in my portfolio but just finishing shooting my brother's baseball games the last couple days. There aren't a ton of sports picture fans on photo.net--most people enjoy more of the artistic photos but don't let that discourage you. Sports are one of the most enjoyable things in my life and sports photography is a lot of fun and actually probably the easiest way to make money in photography. Be in touch....I'll try to make it by your portfolio and check out your other shots.

Any thoughts or comments are greatly appreciated!

James--As you'll see if you look at my portfolio, I'm a big fan of putting the sun and a lighthouse together and consider myself to be at least decent at doing so. However, I definitely have my notebook out learning from your composition on this shot! Very nicely done! The sun is a little blown out but it doesn't hurt the image much...I really like the foreground tide pool with the nice golden reflection and how you managed to get enough foreground detail to see ripples in the sand. Did you use an ND Grad? (Sunset filter? I'd probably guess P197?) Blending? Or some other technique to accomplish this? Regardless, this is very nicely done! Wonderful composition...I'm impressed! I also like the slight distortion (forgive me if that is not the correct term) from what I assume is a super wide angle lens--it makes the lighthouse loom large in your shot. Keep up the great work...I look forward to seeing more!

Thanks Jim! I appreciate your help, comments, and good luck wishes. I'll be by to comment on some of your shots soon.

David--yet another wonderful shot, again with your signature foreground, tack sharp rocks, and ghostly water. I agree with Will, I'm jealous of the beautiful seascapes you get to shoot but it is obvious this shot is also the product of a ton of skill and artistic genius--both through the lens and post-processing on the computer. I like your nice warm tones on the water and distant horizon. Furthermore, the composition with the rock "lines" going across the shot from left to right (instead of the viewer looking down the row of rocks) is a neat twist and also very pleasing. Keep up the good work--I certainly enjoy it!

Jim--Thanks for your comments. I will take your word (and the word of those above) about the horizon but it's still a bit confusing to me. It looks like to the left of the image the land is the horizon but to the right side of the image the horizon is not the land, but rather a wedge of ocean water that gets progressively bigger and bigger as you go further right. If that is the case, then leveling the land will slant the ocean water. That was my thinking but in the end I probably trust you guys more than myself. :) I agree that your repost (thanks, by the way) does look nice. Upon reconsideration I guess I would say that there is a mild tilt which is exacerbated by the island/ocean alignment I mentioned above.

 

I would tend to agree there is a true tilt in this shot but another reason I'm always told pictures of this lighthouse are tilted is because the lighthouse really, truly is FALLING! So, the lighthouse is definitely not horizontal...I'd say it probably leans about 4 degrees or so (see my picture "White Caps"--the B&W shot with the wave crashing...it looks REALLY tilted in that picture but some people confirmed that the horizon was flat so it's really the lighthouse).

 

Once again, thanks for your comments on my composition and repost. You have shown me that while I may have a point about the island creating a bit of an illusion, there also seems to be a slight tilt that you kindly corrected.

 

PS-I clicked quickly on your portfolio and you have some great shots upon quick scan. I'm studying for my medical board exam this week but I'll be sure to come by and leave some comments to return the critiquing favor after the exam. I do appreciate you stopping by and offering your thoughts.

David--I read your technical remarks and had a great chuckle! I had to laugh (forgive me) at the "ISO 400...forgot to change it back to 100"--did you read my follow-up to your comments on my "Sunset Glow" where you said there was noise? I did the exact same thing so I've been there too! Bad things happen when you hurry, but if you don't hurry you don't get the shot.

 

On to your shot--I don't care if you hurried, what jammed, or if you took these frames while running the result, in my opinion, is truly outstanding! You have your signature look with the nice, smooth foreground rocks but what sets this image apart to me is the pink glow in the foreground. Furthermore, your composition is very strong. I like how the horizon is bright without being blown out--the pink and scattering of the rays of the sun is very pleasing. In short, this is very nicely done, especially considering the hurried and difficult circumstances!

 

Once again, this is a great shot--it may have been hurried but in my opinion, ranks right up there with your best!

Thanks Cole--I'll definitely give your suggestions a try. I appreciate you stopping by and leaving some comments--good to see you back on here after some time away!

Stephen--Thank you for your comment. My aperture here is shut down as far as it can go (I think f/32) in order to try to get maximum DOF but I agree, the foreground is a little blurry. It is definitely possible that my focal point was off...I was trying to focus far enough in the distance to make sure my DOF would go to infinity to get the lighthouse and sun in decent focus but maybe I over compensated. I have shut down so far in order to 1) blue the water and get as much reflection as possible and 2) get maximum DOF. Where would you suggest that I focus if I had this same composition again? I'm shooting at 75mm here and I'm worried that if I focus on the mud specifically that my DOF would fall short of the island and lighthouse--I'll have to go to dofmaster.com and do some calculations. One more thing, I'll try to post another version later but I think my filter for this shot may have something to do with the blur as well. They kept fogging up with condensation and I had to continuously wipe them down so I'm wondering if there was condensation or streak marks that may have contributed to the problem. The surrounding frames with no/different filters look a TOUCH better to me, but I'm not an expert on seeing this type of stuff. Thanks again for your comments--if you have any suggestions for focal point, f/stop, etc. I would love hear them and will definitely give them a go next time out!

Here is a comment that was posted before I reuploaded this picture for critique:

 

Stephen Penland, March 26, 2007; 12:09 A.M.

 

The addition of the sun and the patches of bright clouds really contribute a lot. I wish, however, that the foreground mud was in focus. To my eye, the blur makes it distracting. How about trying a focus spot and aperture similar to your previous shot?

 

Thanks for the comments--I do appreciate them. As for the horizon, I initially thought the same thing but look a bit closer--the *horizon* is actually not crooked. Don't look at the land...that is an island and it is irregularly shaped so gives the appearance or being unlevel. BUT, if you look at the sun--it is cut in half by the TRUE horizon, which is the water in the distance beyond the island. Look at the water line and you'll see that it does not parallel the land of the island and is straight as an arrow! I do understand why you guys thought that though--as I said, I thought the same thing...it's just a bit of an illusion because of the fact that we are looking at water, an island, and then ocean on the far side. Thanks again for the kind remarks!

I'm still trying to work on finding new compositions for this lighthouse at sunrise. The extreme low tide was a nice touch because I was able to fill the foreground with little tide pools and mud. My previous post from SAT morning (Daybreak Solitude) has a lot of empty space and few points of interest. The sky was void of clouds so the right side of the shot seemed barren to me. I took the good points of that shot (mainly the foreground mud and water) and tried to add a little interest to the right side by positioning myself so the sun would balance the image a bit. I'd love to hear your thoughts on this composition or any alternate ideas you may have. Thanks for stopping by!

Any thoughts or comments are greatly appreciated!

Thanks Stephen! I appreciate your remarks! That touch of land is what I've been adding to the composition so far this year. I also have some ideas which I tried out this morning (stay tuned...hope to get them posted tonight or tomorrow morning). I agree the patch of land works well...I've been struggling to get multiple points of interest when shooting this lighthouse so I'm glad you liked the addition of a little mud. :) Thanks for stopping by to comment--it's always good to hear from you!

Zacarius and Antino--Thank you very much for stopping by and leaving your kind remarks! As I said above, I'm taking my medical boards next week so I will not have much time to be on photo.net this week but I will be certain to visit each of your respective portfolios and return the favor of leaving some remarks when my board exam is over with. I hope you will return to view my work in the future.

 

Vince--As always, you came through for me! GREAT job being an investigator! I understood what you were saying and how logical it was, but I KNEW I was covering the lens with the filter and had done everything I could think of to prove it to myself. This shot was, to be honest, the result of experimentation. I was just trying to learn my filters, what effects they give together, and how position effects results and came out with this shot. I was thinking it may have something to do with creating a REVERSE high dynamic range with so many filters but I didn't know I could burn out all the color like I did--thanks to you, now I do. The pluff mud is a factor as well, although at high tide there is probably about 4 feet of water in the foreground (none at low tide). Regardless, it is very dark AND I think I had a polarizer on, which may have cut some of the foreground glare (I know the far water still has nice glow but A) that is the natural appearance and B) I've heard that polarizers have stronger effects at certain angles to the water surface so give the difference in angles that would be a factor as well). Regardless, those details are only exacerbating factors...the real problem is too much density up top which burned out the foreground. To be honest, I probably did this because at the time I was liking the shot with the foreground a little more distinct (overexposed). I think I could have probably lost one stop up top and kept some detail and distinction but at the same time given a bit more natural appearance. I'm also thinking I might go ahead and get a 3 stop filter. I have been using the 1 and 2 stops together quite a bit, which I know is the same effect, but it's more complicated and after some trials I think I'd get my use out of a 3 stop. Also, I doubt I'll need 4 stops that often (if ever) but if I do, I could get it done with only 2 fitlers instead of 3 (like in this shot). Lastly, the sun has finally made it far enough North that I'm back hiking an 45 minutes through the forest and swamp to shoot my lighthouse at sunrise. In one of our other conversations we'd talked about shooting when there was only a tad bit of light left after sunset and getting good results and you'd added that you do the same thing when there is low light BEFORE sunrise. While I'd been staying til all color faded in the PM, I hadn't been arriving more than 10 minutes before the sun peaked over the horizon in the AM. I've taken your advice the last 2 days and, although the sunrise's weren't spectacular, have gotten some pretty promising and pleasing results with my new equipment, filters, and advice from you! As always, THANK YOU!

 

The one thing I have yet to figure out is how to use my Tokina to make a pleasing composition---I don't know if the lighthouse is just too far away to use the wide angle or if I am just not creative enough in my compositions. I find that most wide angle seascapes utilize tide pools, foreground rocks, and things of that nature...our beaches here are pretty much boring grey sand before sunrise so I've been struggling to find foreground interest. I'll keep working at it. If you have any composition suggestions based on my lighthouse shots (old and new) I'd love to hear them. Once again, thanks for helping me get pointed in the right direction and holding my hand while I improve...I definitely owe you! Thanks for all your hard work, time, and investigation skills with this photo--I was very educated by our exchanges.

William--A very nice shot of an outstanding subject! However, I agree with Emad and Stephen. B&W would probably work well (although color could work too) but this looks unnatural the way you post-processed it. Did you use HDR or layers? For example, your roof looks very grainy, without much saturation, and is the same "light level" as the rest of the shot, which seems off to my eyes. Would you be willing to post the original or at least your post-processing details? We'd probably be better able to make suggestions if you did one or both of those. I have a very, very similar shot myself, found here:

 

http://www.photo.net/photodb/photo?photo_id=5278442

 

so obviously I approve of the subject, composition, etc. I'd just like the see this old barn appear more how I envision it would in real life to my eyes. Overall, very nice shot though. I love your title as well. Keep up the good work!

Yes, it is THAT time of year once again! The sun has moved far enough North that I can once again take the 45 minute long hike on the trails through the forest and swamp to position myself for Morris Island Sunrise!

 

Last time the sun was in position was last fall, which was when I had just gotten my camera and I was didn't know how to use my camera, much less anything about photography. I'm hoping this summer will bring many fruitful shoots! Now I'm armed with more knowledge, lenses, skills, and filters!

 

With that said, I would really appreciate any comments people may have, especially regarding compositions (see some of the other shots in my folder...this lighthouse has been well photographed). The lighthouse is about 400 yards off shore and I'm trying to come up with some new compositions or ways to tweak my old ones to get some really pleasing shots. Any help is appreciated!