I wanted just to shoot the sunset, but a thunderstorm blew in just as I was gathering my stuff for the drive over. I worried that it wouldn't pass quickly enough to let the color shine before the sun was gone, but it worked out just fine, with the storm passing at just the right time to generate all this gorgeous drama. It was very windy, and I shot everything while keeping a firm hand on the tripod.
Crop
Curves
Saturation
Contrast
Neat Image
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Post-challenge comments:
I did not shoehorn this in. I went out to shoot a Beatles lyric and shoot a Beatles lyric I did. I'm wondering if that's why the best photo I've ever submitted to any challenge collected such a ridiculous number of low votes. How anyone could score this less than a five is beyond my comprehension - and that would even be low. A plague on both your houses and all that. Meh.
Statistics
Place: 109 out of 273 Avg (all users): 5.6296 Avg (commenters): 5.8571 Avg (participants): 5.2340 Avg (non-participants): 5.8409 Views since voting: 1126 Views during voting: 378 Votes: 270 Comments: 13 Favorites: 0
CTCP2 Gunnsi
First impression: Good looking stormy clouds. Not a sun coming up but a disappearing sun. The picture is in focus and there is this beautiful red colour but not enough.
What can you do better? I think what is wrong is how you build this image. To heavy on one side while there is nothing on the other. To bright on one side and to dark on the other. You could IMO have just zoomed in on the red sky at the horizon.
I hope there will be no plaque on my house for I gave this picture only 4.
This is a lovely image. I really like the clouds in this, and the water is a gorgeous color through most of the picture. Two things that worked against you here (imho) - the bottom right corner is sort of dark, and the idea that the sun is coming out is sort of subtle. This would have done better as "here comes the storm". Still a really pretty shot, though.
First Impression Very Nice cloud shot.
Composition: Someone gave me a tip that the horizon should be on third for this kind of images. I found the tip very useful, try it and let me know if you found it useful too.
Subject: Very nice. I always like the sunrise/sunset pictures with coulds.
Technical (Colour and light): The exposure is bit tricky here. The right most is bit dark, but if you try to increase the exposure some area will be blown out. Try using exposure lock for this kind of pictures.
Improvement: Horizon at third, and exposure to give details on the right side.
Summary: Really like the image as is, but may score even higher with bit improvement IMO.
First Impression: WOW. Very nice skyscape. And the title selected is absolutely smart.
Composition: well composed and good proportions of sky and sea. Maybe the bottom right is a bit too dark and it seems lightly unbalanced.
Subject: I think the subject is alright for the challenge.
Technical: very good in technical aspects. The colors are great except in the "dark side". Focus is OK. It makes some little jpeg artifacts, at least on my monitor.
Improvement: maybe process the dark zone to make it a little bit more detailed
Summary: really great shot. Don't worry about scoring, because it depends on what voters expected to see in the challenge.
This is a great natural scene that you captured well. I agree with your first commenter about the balance isssue...the shot does appear to be more heavy on the right and light on the left, if that makes sense. I think that in a weather or landscape challenge, your score might have been higher. For this particular challenge, however, I think voters were a bit more finicky about presentation and definite link to the challenge (i.e. being able to tell the song without reading the title). When I look at it, I think more "There Goes the Sun" than "Here Comes the Sun" since the storm is the subject, not the sun itself. Plus, as pretty as the scene is, there is really not much of the elusive "wow" factor. The bottom half of the image is rather dark...maybe a boost in contrast and saturation a bit more could make it pop a little more. Still, scoring a 5.6 is good and I think you'll only continue to do better the more challenges you enter.
Keep clicking and let me know if you have any questions! :)
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