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There is nothing more disappointing that gettign up at the crack of dawn only to get rained on once at the beach, ok that might be a bit of a overstatement...

I checked out sunset to see what kinda clouds were around was rewarded with a tit-a-bit of colour, went for sunrse and it showed all the promise, lots of red on teh horizon for which i waited for the devine illumination of the thin layer of cloud - nope..nothing, then it rained on me, thats the third time this place has done that to me. Nonetheless, went to the other end of the beach and got a grand total of 5 minutes of light.






thoughts? comments? suggestions?

the last two are the most impressive but i think the tone is a bit visually messy
lacks the actual mood is this due to overprocessing seems like the images have been lightened

anyway congrats for getting to the location and witnessing sunrise/sunset
you seem to be quite the trekker

Sunrises and sunsets are bit of a lottery at the best of times. Sometimes you get lucky...Sometimes you just enjoy the the solitude and think about next time
Looks like the swell was small as well
Like the last of the images due to the use of the leading lines and texture in the rock formation. The clouds also portray the mood well plus the sun was trying to cooperate by adding some colour that is absent in #3.
#1 has the sky colour but not much interest in the rest of the frame
#2 doesnt do a lot for me I'm afraid

The first two look great, but despite the last two looking very impressive it bothers me that there seems to be a heavy overprocess on them (much like my dislike of many HDRs that I do).

Great to see your shots though. Still trying to catch a good sunrise/sunset...I have a few from the weekend to mull over though

Gerry, where is this location?

You can usually tell whether it's going to be a good one by checking out the clouds a little.(if you live in a flat area) That can improve your chances a little. But as already mentioned, rest is random. If the sky is crystal clear, I don't usually bother.

It's clear from these that you weren't given much to work with. This happens more than often (for me) and I usually delete all the pictures (save a couple) when I get home. The other idea is to go for detail etc and shift your focus slightly from the sunset itself.

The last two are too obviously photomatix. These days I try to counteract these effects by equalising the colors to be more belieavable etc and use dodge and burn AFTER the process. This takes alot of time and layers...

My favourite is #1 of this lot. Pretty good sky and foreground silhoutte. The others have relatively flat light. I think this location is tempting you to return.

wendellt wrote:lacks the actual mood is this due to overprocessing seems like the images have been lightened

aim54x wrote:two looking very impressive it bothers me that there seems to be a heavy overprocess on them

surenj wrote:The last two are too obviously photomatix

thanks for the critique, this is the kinda info I am after, sometimes that line on where to push the PP gets blurred and having ppl to sound it out on is excellent. I wil take another look at these again soon, I always find when I look at an image weeks later, or even months later I quite often dislike it or think about do it differently.

Jenno wrote:#2 doesnt do a lot for me I'm afraid

yeah, I sat there in the cold hoping for something an dthat was teh best I could do

Jenno wrote:#1 has the sky colour but not much interest in the rest of the frame

interesting, I tried hard with this one, I new there as going to be a bit of colour but now where near enough to fill half the frame so I tried to add an extra feature to make up for it...The only think I could think of was a shilouette, no hope of getting that dynamic range out!

Jenno wrote:The clouds also portray the mood well plus the sun was trying to cooperate by adding some colour that is absent in #3.

thanks for the comments Ray, very helpful.

surenj wrote:You can usually tell whether it's going to be a good one by checking out the clouds a little.(if you live in a flat area)

yeah I find though once I am awake its past the point of no return...plus, I ain't allowed back in bed cause apparently I make too much noise

surenj wrote:Gerry, where is this location?

ok, the first is Evans River (at Evans Head)
the second is on the northern end of Chinamans Beach (at Evans Head)
and the last two are at the southern end of Chinamans Beach (at Evans Head)

now Evans Head is about 40 kms south of Ballina/Byron.

Thanks for the comments guys, I appreciate it!

different take on the last two images, single exposure, pretty close to the real scene imo.

If these are single exposures (without dodging burning or pseudo HDR), then your sensor has great dynamic range!

In any case, these look great. I don't think you needed to do HDR at all if they came out like that!!

Lol, nx2 d-lighting, control points x 3, warmth and selective contrast

Certainly prefer the reworked versions

Those reworks look good!