Feeling Pretty Good About These...What do you think?

I have tried a lot of sunsets, but these are the first that I feel the exposer looks like what I saw. For the second one, the brush in the foreground is out of focus, does this hurt the image? Also, which one do you like the best? Thanks for commenting.

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These shots both have nice color and all...but, there are so many sunset shots that you really need to do something to make them standout. Can't tell you what exactly that would take( why I don't do them). When I see these I just see another sunset. try to look for unique opportunities in the future.

I like the first one the best. It has an added degree of interest with the trees.

Sadly, I think the defocussed brush in the foreground detracts from the second one.

Agree with Meaty0, the crispness of the bush silhouette should have been the main point of interest, also try cropping a little closer to the 'sun' area to further highlight that subject area.

agree as well...the lack of focus detracts. too bad, you got some beautiful colors.

That's what I was afraid of. My goal in the second one was to replicate the colors of the sunset, so at least that turned out pretty good. I just need to start being more aware of the full frame. Thanks.

backup63 wrote in post #6556722
For the second one, the brush in the foreground is out of focus, does this hurt the image?

In my opinion, yea...I think that's at least part what blew this shot as it makes the whole shot look oof. I'm not sure what aperture you shot that at, but I most definitely would have stopped down...probably around f/16 somewhere depending on how close that foreground actually was. That said, that's not the only problem with this shot...-if- the shot was supposed to be about the sunset, then I would have liked to have seen this a few minutes earlier...the sun is almost completely gone in this shot. Nice colors here, but that's really about it. See my comments about composition below...

Between the 2 I think the second shot is better, but at the risk of sounding rude or harsh, I can't really say either of these shots are worth writing home about. They have nice color and nice exposure, but that's about it...there's no real composition to either of these shots. To me it seems like you are getting so focused (no pun intended) on the exposure aspects and trying to get the exposure "just right" that you're not paying any attention at all to what your actually shooting. Color and exposure are specific aspects of composition, but they are not the end all, be all of composition. Using the second shot for example, if there had of been perhaps a tree off to one side of the shot and the sun on the other side giving the shot a sense of "balance" (and assuming of course the shot was actually sharp), then this would have worked, but what I see here is a poorly timed, poorly executed attempt to capture the "pretty colors of the sky"...and nothing more really. The same thing applies to the first shot...there's pretty colors in the sky as seen thru some trees....yea? So? There's no real sense of a central subject to the image at all. In both of these shots the actual sun is hidden by something so obviously it's not the central subject of the image...so what is? While the colors are "nice" they're not really intense enough to carry the image all by themselves in either shot. I would really put more effort into establishing an actual composition next time....find something to use as an specific subject for the shots and use the sunset and the colors as complimentary aspects of an over-all composition.

Alrighty, not trying to be mean or rude...just my honest opinion.
Jim

Walczak Photo thanks for the critique. The only way that I will get better is to hear how I can improve. I did have a few where the sun was more in the frame, but the exposure wasn't right and the sky was way blown out. The brush in the foreground was about 25-35 yds away. I focused right on the sun, which was probably the problem. Also, i had the apeture set at f8. The purpose for the photos, was my dad asking me to take pictures of the sunset at our cabin. Like commented before, this will help me be more aware of the whole frame. Thanks again.