Yaletown Skyline After Dark

Let me know what you think.

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I think that both of them are incredible and I can't decide which is better ... maybe they both are.

Hi LD,

I think the top one works quite well, but lacks something I can't even put my finger on. I know that doesn't help much! If I had to hazard a guess, I'd say it might be that the heaviness and incompleteness of the trees' shadows doesn't balance well with the pale upper sky.

In the second one, I find the boats problematic... exposed enough to invite viewing, but underexposed enough to frustrate it. I just can't relax into this, or settle my eye more than fleetingly anywhere other than the sun, which is - naturally enough - overexposed, and lacks interest to keep my eye there long.

Sorry to be a bit negative with these.

Regards, Tony

Thank you for the kind words Bill.

tonydee wrote in post #5470780
Hi LD,

I think the top one works quite well, but lacks something I can't even put my finger on. I know that doesn't help much! If I had to hazard a guess, I'd say it might be that the heaviness and incompleteness of the trees' shadows doesn't balance well with the pale upper sky.

In the second one, I find the boats problematic... exposed enough to invite viewing, but underexposed enough to frustrate it. I just can't relax into this, or settle my eye more than fleetingly anywhere other than the sun, which is - naturally enough - overexposed, and lacks interest to keep my eye there long.

Sorry to be a bit negative with these.

Regards, Tony

You don't have to be sorry for being negative I'd rather hear what is bothersome than silence. Especially when I have similar reservations about the one in the marina.

If I bring up the light on the marina it becomes too noisy since the exposure was exposing the sky. It did not throw the boats into complete silhouette, but I wasn't sure if that was good or bad. I'll try to throw them further into darkness, but I'm afraid that the silhouette of the boats will meld with the condo's in the background and become too indistinct a blob.

Let me see if I can open up the water in the top one a bit.

LeuceDeuce wrote in post #5471018
If I bring up the light on the marina it becomes too noisy since the exposure was exposing the sky. It did not throw the boats into complete silhouette, but I wasn't sure if that was good or bad. I'll try to throw them further into darkness, but I'm afraid that the silhouette of the boats will meld with the condo's in the background and become too indistinct a blob.

Let me see if I can open up the water in the top one a bit.

Re marina - quite agree... I couldn't see any obvious solution. May be quite a departure stylistically, but some none-too-subtle tone mapping would address the issue, and might be able to be done in a way that didn't ruin the picture...? Cheers, Tony

Ok opened the first one up a bit, and tried to silhouette the boats a little more on a similar image.

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tonydee wrote in post #5471068
Re marina - quite agree... I couldn't see any obvious solution. May be quite a departure stylistically, but some none-too-subtle tone mapping would address the issue, and might be able to be done in a way that didn't ruin the picture...? Cheers, Tony

Let's see what can be done

I'll have to wait unti I get home to see what I can do with that first Marina image. I don't have my original edit, and I don't want to edit the compressed jpg because quality will suffer too much.

I am liking the last shot LD.We have had some awesome heat these past few days eh?

Flo wrote in post #5471129
I am liking the last shot LD.We have had some awesome heat these past few days eh?

Thanks Gail The weather has been awesome!!

Solid reposts in #6, LD... both significantly improved in my opinion. Top one looks more natural, harmonious, balanced, and simply more comfortable to view. Bottom one adds interest with the extra edge of silhouettes left of the strip of water - making that central strip the centre of attention rather than the sun itself. Might be even better from a higher angle if the water makes a kind of "T" shape, but don't know how you'd do that without a tree to climb, a few basketballer/acrobat shoulders to stand on etc - and it might backfire by screwing up the boat silhouettes. Another alternative is to get further in so you're only overlooking a few boats before you see the water immediately behind them, but not sure if you can climb all over the place there without getting arrested or something . Cheers, Tony

While I like the revisions, I think that my preference is still the original version of the images. Maybe it is because my eyes are drawn to the sunset and its colors and I see the darker areas as easily identifiable silhouettes with just enough detail to tell me what they are and something about the setting, but at the same time, dark enough to remain unobtrusive. The reworked versions with the darker silhouette foreground leaves me wanting confirmation about what I am seeing. At the same time, I think that the points Tony makes about the lighting are all valid, so I think that this means that you can't please everybody at the same time. In the spirit of compromise there is probably a solution that nobody likes. (that's another way of saying the most important thing is to please yourself).

Thanks to everyone who has responded. My choices are still the first two images.

I'm happy that the silhouettes in the first sunset are clearly identifiable, and feel that lighter version makes my eyes wander to the buildings that are now slightly exposed.

In the marina shot I still think I need to see some seperation between the boats and the skyline. In the second version the silhouettes are ill-defined blobs of black. I do like the diagonal leading lines in the second marina shot though so I may end up processing the second like the first.