Sunset at East Bay Suburbby
DigiFotoBuddyComment by jaysonmc: Cheers from the Critique Club:
Not too bad, you came in the middle of the pack. Hopefully my comments below will help you further.
What this photo has going for it:
By far the best thing about this photo is the relevancy to the challenge. This shot screams suburbia too me, so well done. Also all the gentle curves and how the houses slow bend around. It creates a nice eye movement in the frame. And the sunset coming over the horizon is just icing on the cake, sleepy suburbia at dawn.
Scoring better:
Just some ideas if you were looking for a better score, ignore this if you were not. The middle horizon the bane of all photographers. I still get caught up in central horizon. "Generally" it is something you want to avoid. A couple of things you could try, cropping this to a pano, removing most of the sky. Going to a square crop, central horizons work well here, or lastly recompose the shot so you either have less foreground or less background (rule of thirds). People here like to have a central subject, this is subjective. When I look at this picture, the Sun is the highlight. With this in mind, try cropping in closer. If you have the sun/horizon near the top or bottom of the frame I think you would have had a lot more drama. There is just a lot of space here. Anyhow, if scores are not your concern just ignore this.
Things to consider in the future:
Some things I would like to see. Consider some traditional framing techniques, a tree framing to the shot would add a lot of interest. A slightly different crop may also help. Think vertically, sometimes that helps look at a scene in a new way These are just tips, not necessarily good ones, but perhaps something to consider in the future.
To Sum Up:
Personally, I think this photograph was a terrific example of suburbia. It has a lot of nice elements, sunset/sunrise, nice mountain backdrop, and some nice repeating forms in the homes. Middle of the pack is great, I'm just happy to get there myself. I gave some tips on what I think you could do for a better score, but take that with a grain of salt. The last part is more of what I might doing when preparing for a shot and is a matter of personal preference and in no way impacts this photo.
Photographer found comment helpful.
