Your input please on this beach shot: I shot this during a trip to Myrtle Beach for a robotics competition.

manofhg Loc: Knoxville, TN

I shot this during a trip to Myrtle Beach for a robotics competition.

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Architect1776 Loc: In my mind

manofhg wrote:

I shot this during a trip to Myrtle Beach for a robotics competition.

I like it. I would have caught the sun a bit higher but understand the reason for the partial sun as the gears are circles partially buried as well. But it just bothers me about the sun.
So yes it is very good.

manofhg Loc: Knoxville, TN

Architect1776 wrote:

I like it. I would have caught the sun a bit higher but understand the reason for the partial sun as the gears are circles partially buried as well. But it just bothers me about the sun.
So yes it is very good.

I never thought about the gears/sun relationship. I just had a short amount of time to shoot before I had to get to the competition. It was cold, I dropped the gears (with a little arrangement), and took several shots to get all the tone details, then blended for more exposure range. Not quite HDR, but with that in mind.

Thanks for your comments.

eric

djtravels Loc: Georgia boy now

I like the sun position breaking the horizon. Produces a star effect. What I'm not happy about is that the horizon isn't level. I'd also like to see it a bit more in focus. Just me on that.

manofhg Loc: Knoxville, TN

djtravels wrote:

I like the sun position breaking the horizon. Produces a star effect. What I'm not happy about is that the horizon isn't level. I'd also like to see it a bit more in focus. Just me on that.

You are right. I need to straighten a little. I probably did some, but didn't quite get it right. I used a pretty high f-stop to catch the gears and some distance out, but could have certainly gone farther. The fact that the subject is the gears in a sunrise, but still the gears, that is why the focus is mainly on the gears. Thanks for your comments, I'll have to look at straightening it.

Architect1776 Loc: In my mind

manofhg wrote:

I never thought about the gears/sun relationship. I just had a short amount of time to shoot before I had to get to the competition. It was cold, I dropped the gears (with a little arrangement), and took several shots to get all the tone details, then blended for more exposure range. Not quite HDR, but with that in mind.

Thanks for your comments.

eric

Use that relationship in your BS song and dance to the viewers. Makes you look real esoteric and they feel like fools for missing it.
I find it fun to do and it generally works to get deep insightful comments that might not be forth coming. Never admit that it was a mistake or chance but was always carefully thought out and planned.

manofhg Loc: Knoxville, TN

Architect1776 wrote:

Use that relationship in your BS song and dance to the viewers. Makes you look real esoteric and they feel like fools for missing it.
I find it fun to do and it generally works to get deep insightful comments that might not be forth coming. Never admit that it was a mistake or chance but was always carefully thought out and planned.

About the only thing that was planned was to put the gears in the sand and catch during sunrise. What I had not planned on was the temperature being very cool and I was barefoot and in shorts. My feet eventually got completely numb and I was worried that I would cut them on a sharp shell and not know it.

10MPlayer Loc: California

I'd lose the shell. The sea and surf says enough about 'ocean'. I'm not sure but I think it might have been better with a smaller aperture so the horizon would have been in focus as well as the gears. I like the idea. The lighting on the gears is great. I just couldn't really tell whether the other object was a shell or a rock until I enlarged it some. Like I said, I think the gears and the ocean would have been enough.

manofhg Loc: Knoxville, TN

10MPlayer wrote:

I'd lose the shell. The sea and surf says enough about 'ocean'. I'm not sure but I think it might have been better with a smaller aperture so the horizon would have been in focus as well as the gears. I like the idea. The lighting on the gears is great. I just couldn't really tell whether the other object was a shell or a rock until I enlarged it some. Like I said, I think the gears and the ocean would have been enough.

Thanks for commenting. I actually first shot it without the shell, but there was a footprint evident (mine, of course). Given a short wait, the surf would have taken care of it though.

eric

Revet Loc: Fairview Park, Ohio

Overall I love the shot but I would try the following if it was me to see how the picture is affected:

1) As stated, straighten the horizon
2) I think with a landscape crop you might get the sun and gears both close to rule of third's cross points
3) I think the sky is way oversaturated. I do this all the time when I first process an image but when I come back to look at it later, I end up toning it down a bit.
4) I would have used hyperfocal distance and got the background in focus. Or if in a hurry (which we usually are at sunset), focus 1/3rd into the scene.

Ultimately, it is what pleases you and it seems now-a-days that oversaturating and oversharpening is the rage.

AzPicLady Loc: Behind the camera!

I like your idea, and the lighting on the subject matter is nice. I like the shell. The sun itself is quite overpowering. And the OOF background is distracting. I did a virtual crop at the top of the first section of dark. It left in the sun reflection closer to the subject but cropped out everything above it. So the over-brilliant sun and reflection and the OOF section were gone. I liked that a lot better. It was a lot more restful to my eyes, and the lesser reflection still gave the evidence of the sun. But that's likely not the image you wanted, so my apologies.

Meives Loc: FORT LAUDERDALE

It's an entertaining composition. With F 14 the entire capture should have been in focus. I see the ISO 100 could be upped to 800 and allow a faster shutter speed. The picture is not all in focus. It is artistic and fun.

Nightski

This is a very odd image. The shell is out of focus and has some haloing and weird lighting issues going on. The gears on the other hand are in perfect focus and they are also perfectly clean. How could that be? Some of the water looks long exposure and some of it doesn't. The plane of focus seems inconsistent. The setting sun which grabs much of the attention is out of focus. There are two things grabbing the focus and it's disturbing. It doesn't flow from one thing to the next. I'll give you one thing .. I had to look closer.

Architect1776 Loc: In my mind

manofhg wrote:

I shot this during a trip to Myrtle Beach for a robotics competition.

Looking at it again I really like the out of focus shell and background. All in focus would be horribly boring.
You show the gears are important and the rest secondary.
I do the same in Architecture drawings to give depth and emphasize what is the important feature.

manofhg Loc: Knoxville, TN

Revet wrote:

Overall I love the shot but I would try the follow... (show quote)

Thanks for commenting. Yes, I need to straighten the horizon, I did miss that or straightened it, but didn't get it right. Never thought about the oversaturation, but that is something I have been toning back in other pics since, as you say it is the thing now-a-days. Not sure that I completely want the background in focus, but should have shot with both conditions. It was a sunrise, by the way.