'Different' Landscape Photo

Decided to try something a little creative for this shot, shot 1/2 way up Bill Williams mountain in AZ(el. 9,256'.) Can't decide whether I like the sun or find it annoying. I removed some glare with light room. Taken with an Xsi and 18-55mm kit lens. Critiques!

its pretty cool, i'd play with the settings some to make it more art/experimental. It has potential.

scrap this one and try again. the scene is uninteresting and the sun is extremely distracting and blown out.

The eye is drawn to the brightest part of the image. Because the sun is so powerful, it draws the viewer away from the landscape and primary center of interest.

Depends where it's used. Of your shooting an ad for a hot sunny desert landscape then it looks like it's working for me. What do you guys think it's for?

If was a shot for a hot sunny desert landscape I'd wonder why there were so many trees

AmandaMarie and Aquaman are right, the image doesn't work for a number of reasons, but that doesn't mean that there is no mileage in trying again and improving (what is Critique Corner for if not for trying to improve!?!).

First up the sun is distracting, but the foreground is equally distracting. Neither of the elements on their own are interesting enough and together the eye flits between the two without finding anything to rest on for long enough. I WANT to see more of the landscape beyond the rocks in the foreground.

It's not a bad concept or experiment, but like all good experiments it needs repeating and refining. Try including a fore, middle and background and shoot with a much smaller aperture than f/10 to tame the sun a bit (and maybe try underexposing a little). Balancing your exposure with ND gradients or multiple exposures and blending with a gradient mask will help you control the sun while maintaining a decent exposure of the foreground.

Yeah, I agree with everyone. You should get in a T-38 and take a photo from 50,000 feet so the sun doesn't have that harsh glare, it will look like a star. If the day is clear enough you should get plenty of landscape

If a camera judge was commenting, this would be pased over due to the light in the corner which as has been mentioned sucks your eye straight out of the frame. It's also knocked the contrast for six. The sun looks like it could be repositioned to a lower point and colour could be added to make it less super white.

Even without the sun in the picture, there isn't enough to hold interest.

Alright, thanks for the responses. Don't get me wrong I'm not necessarily proud of this shot it was just an 'experiment' as stated above. And believe me I didn't take just one picture while I was up there either. I will learn from the bad ones, and hopefully improve my landscape shots (since motor sports is my thing.)

Tip: if you want the sun to appear as a nice starburst, close your aperture to around f/16.

corkneyfonz wrote in post #11110226

HTTP response: 404 | MIME changed to 'image/gif' | Byte size: ZERO

A half hour mess about to show that the image can be "rescued"

Wow that's much more artistic, it's amazing what can be done in Photoshop. Amazing how you re positioned the sun.

Carlton750 wrote in post #11110237
Wow that's much more artistic, it's amazing what can be done in Photoshop. Amazing how you re positioned the sun.

Thank you for your kind words, as I said earlier it lends itself to digital manipulation very well and is certainly worth keeping.