A beach in Protaras, Cyprus

Hey guys, I'm new here so go easy yeah? Haha! I took this last week when over in Cyprus for a friend's wedding. The weather was gorgeous with not a cloud in the sky but unfortunately, that doesn't really lend itself to good photographs, so I added a more dramatic sky to this shot to give it some drama. Let me know what you think.

OK,i`ll reply.
First,welcome to the forum,second...avoid shooting during the day with a very harsh light.
Instead of changing the sky in photo software,try other techniques to enhance the original one,ie filters.

dv2004 wrote in post #2120323
OK,i`ll reply.
First,welcome to the forum,second...avoid shooting during the day with a very harsh light.
Instead of changing the sky in photo software,try other techniques to enhance the original one,ie filters.

I know it wasn't ideal light but I hadn't taken any "proper" photographs all week and I thought I should get out and try something, in the half hour before we were leaving.

elfy wrote in post #2120858
I know it wasn't ideal light but I hadn't taken any "proper" photographs all week and I thought I should get out and try something, in the half hour before we were leaving.

Ah,well,it`ll be plenty of chances from now on anyway,you are the forum now.

Just the same it's a good looking shot

i dig it

Thanks guys. I try not to do too much in Photoshop and always try to get it right in-camera as much as possible but at the same time I'm not averse to trying things like this if it gives a good result. The purists out there would probably disagree but I think that's ultimately the most important thing.

I like it too elfy, and welcome to another Scot.

rudgej wrote in post #2123445
I like it too elfy, and welcome to another Scot.

Thanks, good to be here. You can never have too many Scots I feel.

Welcome to POTN, elfy. But the shot doesn't work for me, I'm afraid. You've got this really dark shadow under the boat, which indicates that the sun is out and shining brightly, but the sky isn't compatible. To me it just screams that it's been spliced together. I guess you've tried to make it less obvious via the B&W conversion - I imagine a colour version would even more obviously 'faked'. I don't have anything against 'creating' images using techniques like this, but personally I do feel they work better if they have a degree of realism to them. Just my £0.02 worth.

StewartR wrote in post #2126703
Welcome to POTN, elfy. But the shot doesn't work for me, I'm afraid. You've got this really dark shadow under the boat, which indicates that the sun is out and shining brightly, but the sky isn't compatible. To me it just screams that it's been spliced together. I guess you've tried to make it less obvious via the B&W conversion - I imagine a colour version would even more obviously 'faked'. I don't have anything against 'creating' images using techniques like this, but personally I do feel they work better if they have a degree of realism to them. Just my £0.02 worth.

Thanks, good to be here.

I take your point about the shadow. I kinda thought the sky would suggest storms approaching but if it doesn't work for you, that's fair enough. Thanks for your comments.