two sunsets for cc please

[chadgeek]

Hello everyone, I'd appreciate some feedback on these. Let me know if you like them, if they are just plain ordinary and bland, etc.

1) On the crowd shot (on my monitor at least) I gave it some shadow detail but I wanted to keep it on the dark side so I tried not to lighten the shadows too much. (venice beach)

2) I would have liked to have the horizon much higher, but there were some blurred shadows of other onlookers in the foreground so I cropped them out. What about the very tiny shape of the airplane in the sky? (hawaii)

[Todd Lambert]

I like the first one... the interest comes from the many peoples' heads.

The second one is "ruined" for me because of the plane, for some reason.

[korrektor]

they are both great! the second one is spot on. yea, clone out that plane pls.

[JimMcrae]

The first one's interesting with all the heads but the second one's a thing of beauty, in my opinion.

[Evil_Edge]

I like them! How the heck do you get the sun to have no rays coming off of it?

[joedlh]

#1 is interesting because of the heads. From a composition perspective, you might try cropping part of the sand in the foreground in order to get the line of heads off center.

#2 is remarkable because of the conflict of moods. A sunset is a calming thing. However, it is clear that the vessel is in distress. I think you could crop out some of the sky down to the top of the mast. It doesn't add much to the image. This would offset your concern that the horizon is too low.

[chadgeek]

I like them! How the heck do you get the sun to have no rays coming off of it?

Honestly I just pointed and shot, I think that was with a 70-200 2.8, no special filters. Hey, it's Hawaii, they have a different sun over there :)

[chadgeek]

#1 is interesting because of the heads. From a composition perspective, you might try cropping part of the sand in the foreground in order to get the line of heads off center.

#2 is remarkable because of the conflict of moods. A sunset is a calming thing. However, it is clear that the vessel is in distress. I think you could crop out some of the sky down to the top of the mast. It doesn't add much to the image. This would offset your concern that the horizon is too low.

The aspect ratio out of my camera is 3 x 4.5, do you think it's weird to have an odd crop? What do you guys think about cropping for the sake of the photo as opposed to cropping to fit a standard print size?

[joedlh]

The aspect ratio out of my camera is 3 x 4.5, do you think it's weird to have an odd crop? What do you guys think about cropping for the sake of the photo as opposed to cropping to fit a standard print size?

I usually aim for a standard size. However, I will go with a custom matte/frame if I think the image would be compromised.