Superior Minnesota at its finest

I spent the night up on Lake Superior with my wife and son. Here are a few of the pictures I took, More to come C&C please.

The beauty in Superiors sunset

You have horizon issues on two of the first three, fixable with DPP, although you lose the corners. Also, the water appears blurred, I don't know if that's out of focus or hand held at a slow shutter speed.

its on purpose with a slow shutter but thanks for the comments.

I was hanging over rocks getting these pics dodging splashes from the waves haha.

The Critique forum would be a better place to get C&C... Anyway...exposure issues, crooked horizons, blown/dead skies...not a whole lot going on from a photographic standpoint.

Matchless Productions wrote in post #13477754
its on purpose with a slow shutter but thanks for the comments.

I was hanging over rocks getting these pics dodging splashes from the waves haha.

Ok, I get what you are doing with the blurred effect, it works on the waves hitting the shore, but then you have just the water further out in the lake, and that just has an out of focus look to it. So I think you need to have a narrower field of view to use that effect. Or else do it much longer so the lake as a whole gets that smoothing effect.

See if this is any help.

Don't bother going for the blurred effect without a tripod. Not sure what aperture you were using but it needs to be small enough so the horizon is crisp.

Also, if you are going for a sunset pic, you need to expose for the sky, not the rocks. The cool thing about a sunset is the color of the sky, not the rocks. Or try HDR, which I can't stand but it might work for this.

Thanks, was my first attempt at this and looks as if I need to do a little work. Thanks everyone for the comments.

Good to have another Minnesotan in here! Don't worry too much about the criticisms. You will learn a ton of info in here. One thing you will find about the pictures you take and think are so awesome when you first started using the DSLR is that in a year or two after learning stuff in here, aren't as awesome. The cool think is that the pictures you take two years from now will blow or friends and family away! Not sure if that made sense or not. This is a great hobby because there is so much to learn.

mckinleypics wrote in post #13480038
Also, if you are going for a sunset pic, you need to expose for the sky, not the rocks. The cool thing about a sunset is the color of the sky, not the rocks. Or try HDR, which I can't stand but it might work for this.

A correct exposure would balance the foreground and background...simply exposing for the sky would relegate everything in the foreground to a black shadow. This is where exposure blending (one for sky, one for foreground) would help dramatically, as well as using a graduated filter as another option to balance the exposure.

From the looks of the OP's images, it looks like there are plenty of compositions available that could include the rocks as a foreground element to help lead the viewer into frame. A sunset with just a colorful sky is, TBH, a pretty boring photo IMO...its been done a million times, and after a while they all start to look alike. Including an interesting foreground element will almost always make for a much better image.

I'm curious to hear exactly how you got the first shot! I like the dutch tilt, works well with the leading line formed by the rocks in the foreground. But the top left to center far right seems out of focus, or suffering from extreme spherical aberration. Was that a result of post processing?

Your pictures have an interesting style. Sunset at Superior is probably the best of these, it just needs a little output sharpening. Also, I'd go for a tad longer exposure to blur the water a little more. Not so that it becomes a fog, but just to make it a little less ragged.

You've got a problem with Superior at its Finest, however. It lacks a center of interest! It feels like an accidental snapshot, since I'm essentially looking at the ocean waves. Never forget to pay attention to your composition and "feel" of your photograph. The arrangement of elements in your picture is paramount!

Good luck with your future endeavors. Landscape photography's a fantastic journey

No critique from me as I'm going to just begin this same journey - landscape photography. There is nothing worthy of my lens around here, so I plan on heading to the Duluth area at the end of next month, if winter has arrived there by then. I'm hoping to get some Superior/sunset shots the first day and then heading to the bog the next couple days in search of owls. Where oh where is winter?

mn shutterbug wrote in post #13668282
No critique from me as I'm going to just begin this same journey - landscape photography. There is nothing worthy of my lens around here, so I plan on heading to the Duluth area at the end of next month, if winter has arrived there by then. I'm hoping to get some Superior/sunset shots the first day and then heading to the bog the next couple days in search of owls. Where oh where is winter?

Don't hesitate to venture out at night. I got this one at the Lutsen resort:

IMAGE LINK: http://www.flickr.com …/22918854@N04/5​640098855/

Beautiful shot. Can you please provide technical details? I've never attempted a night shot. I like this one a lot.

Tripod - 30 sec exposure - the moon was only a sliver but after 30 seconds looks full. I was half in the bag when I took it and was pleasantly shocked chimping the back of the camera. The Lutsen resort is just to the right so that lit up the beach.