[sg]

Got up at 4.30 this morning and decided to snap off a few shots of the different sights around the Wynnum Foreshore, i'm still unsure of composition of certain shots, although i feel i am understanding how to get what i see from Post Processing the shots to suit.

My main bugbear is that when i shoot and what i expect the colours to be or gradiant? of sky is not showing up, so i am working on the correct use of curves and shodow/highlight to try and fix the discrepancy. These 5 are the ones i feel i have managed to get what i was looking for to a certain degree.

[Rufus]

Personally, I really like these, well ok, I'm not keen on no.5, but the rest are great.
Maybe a little too centered, but still excellent.

[sg]

Thanks Rufus................ i myself are still a little unsure on #5 also, as it looks a little dull :/ , but it was put up moreso to get any ideas or opinions on the shot.... (eg, lighting, compostion etc......).

Perhaps a fix me up/ critique topic methinks :/

[Russt]

good job SG.........I think they are great!!! Nothing like getting out there early (dunno about 4:30am :o )

#2 and #3 would be my picks.............I think rufus has a point about being too centered ( ie horizon in the middle ) also #2 needs the horizon straightened
love the colours in #3

welll done

[Petographer]

Beautiful shots SG. Just staighten that 2nd shot.

[Schellamo]

The colours look lovely, but I agree that the horizon is too centred. Next time (if you are ever keen enough to get up at 4.30 again!) try to position the horizon so it cuts across the top or bottom third of the picture to create more interest. Lovely job, well worth the early start!!

[Toad]

The early morning is the best time to shoot - I wish I could get up at the hour more often - nobody sees it - you could sell like mad - a lot of my best stuff is done at 5-6 AM.

[Kombisaurus]

Beautiful shots SG.. lovely skies

#2, 3 and 4 are my favourites.. really lovely. I wish we got sunrises over the sea here as well as sunsets!

And as you were asking for an opinion/critique on #5, here is my take on it.
It is clear through shots #1-4 that you are capable of lovely shots of this type sg, so please don't think that I'm having a go at you with these comments on #5. But because the other shots in this post are very good I feel I can have a real go at #5 without putting your nose out of joint because its clear its not representative of your best work. I'll just try looking at it as critically as I would my own work.

I can see you were using the rule of thirds to compose the boat and tree off-centre... and while generally this can be a good idea I think in this case you might have been better off putting those things on the right-hand-side "third line" instead of the one on the left. As it is, I think it might frustrate the viewer a bit because it looks like there is some interesting detail that goes out of the frame on the left, yet the photo is primarily showing the not-so-interesting detail in the middle and right sides. Also the dominant horizon which is close to the centre does reduce the dynamics of having objects on third-lines.
Having objects (the boat in this case) facing out of the frame instead of into it can be a useful device to create tension, but most photos tend to work better when the people and objects are facing "into" the shot (ie away from the edge of the shot) so the viewer can see where they are looking or heading. I think this shot would be better if the boat were facing towards the centre of the image.
But mainly it is the lack of detail and variety of tones and colours that prevents this from becoming a good shot in my opinion. This kind of high contrast scene is extremely difficult to photograph and represent detail and local contrast in both the sky/water and the shadows simultaneously - and unfortunately there is very little in this scene except sky/water and shadow, and both these areas are quite "flat".
The boat itself is lovely and the exception to the above statement, and a "hero shot" of the boat might have worked well in this case. But in this shot I was left wondering where the point of interest of the shot should be... is it the boat? the silhoetted tree? or the buildings above the treeline on the right? I actually suspect you were hoping the colour of the sky and reflections on the water would be the point of interest here.

Sorry to be so critical of it sg... There are numerous good things about the photo as well (the inclusion of the boat, the exposure, etc), but I just listed the points that I would work on as they popped into my head.
Did you shoot it RAW? If you create a mask in photoshot to seperate the shadowed areas from the sky, you could apply seperate tone curves to each and bring out detail in the shadows while pumping some contrast and colour into the sky and water.
But some scenes just simply don't photograph well (even if they have a nice feeling in person), and I suspect this might have been one of them.

Just my 2c
Cheers
Adrian

[sg]

Kombi, thank you so much for your thoughts, i always appreciate the feeback irrespective of whether it is - or +........... i would never get my nose out of joint where constructive criticism is concerned . I understand now what you mean with the layout of the shot, i'll definately take the points on board. The shot itself was something i thought i'd shoot to see what could be improved in PP, but when i came to viewing it, it was very lifeless like you said.... hence the plea for a critique.........

Oh, and i don't actually shoot in RAW.... i need to get a monster XD card to fit those big files!!!!!!!!!!!!!!