Critique Please

This one was taken at f5.6 1/100sec. at iso 200
As you can see this is a popular place for photographers. In the lagoon there were probably 6 photographers. A few were doing wedding portraits, some bikini photos and another family photos. I have taken the people out in other versions of this photo.
But it does give alittle story to it.
What do you think?

Thanks!

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everything but the sun is under exposed. There is no clear point of interest in the photo. What were you trying to accomplish?

In this case I probably would have spot exposed for the people and risk some of the highlights getting blown out a little in order to get a high key effect. Also I would have cropped out the foreground (in camera not post process) and framed the scene for the individuals (ie put them on one of the 4 rule of thirds points)

Maybe something like this:
http://farm5.static.fl​ickr.com …01117104_5c52c4​7b4b_z.jpg

I don't like sticking the boot in but I feel that this image doesn't quite do justice to the location. For me the interesting element is the people on the near horizon who would have made interesting silhouettes against the sun.

tingharp wrote in post #10781400
Thanks for all your ideas!
What about this one??

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seems reeally blurry imo

Christy:

You live in a great location for photography, so I'm sure you'll have lots of opportunities to improve. I would suggest you get a little closer to those people taking the wedding and fashion shots. Don't interrupt the shoot, but get to where you can see how they're working the light and the background. You will definitely learn a thing or two just by watching.

Now, for your shot, I'm afraid it was doomed from the start. The scene greatly exceeded the dynamic range of your sensor. There was just too much difference between the brightest and darkest spots in the scene, so you have the sun completely overexposed on the left, and the shoreline and people underexposed. Unless you took several exposures at different settings and combined them with an HDR (High Dynamic Range) program, there's just no saving this. HDR is very difficult (at least for me) with moving subjects, so it probably wouldn't have worked here.

Your best bet would have been to move to an angle that excluded the sun and the brightest parts of the sky. Then you could have gotten a better exposure on the people. Alternately, you could have waited until the sun was just below the horizon, then took some shots. You really need a tripod and remote release to make these types of shots work well.

Keep trying. I'm sure tomorrow's sunset will be just as beautiful, so get out there and shoot it again.

Sorry about that. I am not sure what I did. It must have been when I was making changes to it.
Here is a better one.