Sunset Picture

[BornStar]

I'm new to photography so I thought I'd see what people think of this picture I took last night.

Sunset

I took it with an XTi and a Sigma 17-70mm. I had to clone out some power lines in Photoshop but other than that it's exactly how the picture came out of the camera.

 

[BornStar]

I can't tell if no input is good or bad...

 

[Sukhoi]

It's really big.

 

[BornStar]

Alright, it's smaller now.

 

[Zenmervolt]

First of all, don't split the picture in the center like you did. You want to crop it more like this: crop suggestion.

Secondly, there's too much range in that photo, you're blowing out highlights in the sky (your main subject) to keep detail in the shadows of the trees. Either spot meter off the sky and create a silhouette with the trees lost completely to black (like this) or wait for the sky to darken. I'd suggest simply letting the detail in the trees go to black to catch more in the sky or try using a tripod and getting off several bracketed exposures to combine for HDR.

You're on track with the tree on the side, that's good, but you really do need to get rid of all that dead space in the bottom of the shot and avoid washing out the sky.

ZV

 

[BornStar]

Thanks for your input and I do like your crop better. I was kind of in a hurry (golfing) when I snapped the picture so I started with just selecting landscape for the first set of pictures. I wasn't sure what I thought of the sky so I adjusted to a longer exposure to get more detail in the trees. Oh well, live and learn.

 

[IrishBells86]

I agree with Zenmervolt... think thirds when thinking composition. The sun was also too high for a good sunset shot, if it was lower there'd be more color (and interest) in the sky, and you'd have nice silhouettes.