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I ventured out at an early hour to capture the dawn break and sunrise at Burleigh Heads on the Gold Coast yesterday. Here are some of the images for your critique and advise.

I struggled to get any detail in the foreground without blowing out the sky, I guess I need to purchase some graduated ND's?

Thanks for looking.

Quite like the textures and the composition of the first. I am not sure about the slight curvature on each edge though.

Also you didn't really get lucky with the sky either. That's always hit and miss.

You may be right about the grad NDs. You can still try HDR even when shooting towards the sun.

Burleigh heads...i was there when I went up to the gold coast a little while back...i didnt get a chance for either dawn or dusk.

nice colours!

Also, did you get any closer to the wave action?

The first and third ones are great - love the reflections and colour.

I'd suggest cropping out the sky in the first one and straightening it out so there's no distortion

Thanks all for your commentary. I was dissapointed that there was not any cloud cover but that's one thing you can't control. I will give blending of a couple exposures a go when I get a chance to see what that produces. With regards to ND filters, are the cheap fleabay ones worth looking at or would I be wasting my money?

Geoff M wrote:With regards to ND filters, are the cheap fleabay ones worth looking at or would I be wasting my money?

yes you will be wasting money I think.
Just get good ones and move on. Lee seems to be a good choice. Hi-tech (mild color casting) is not bad. Cokin would be a minimum. For this sort of shot though, you'd want a reverse ND grad.