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Firstly thanks Suren for organising this and for coming even with home concerns... and to Gerry and Cam for the additional company

It was looking like it was going to be a pretty uninspiring shoot only an hour or two beforehand with very overcast skies and even the threat of a little rain... but somehow miraculously it cleared in time and left us with a smattering of interesting clouds and colour for a fairly spectacular sunset show.

C&C encouraged... have at it boys

Counter Swirls

NIKON D7000 + 17.0-50.0 mm f/2.8 @ 17 mm, 1.6 sec at f/13, ISO 100 + 0.9GND

I was totally tossing up between this and another similar image I have - in the end I still can't really decide

Puffs and Stripes

NIKON D7000 + 8.0-16.0 mm f/4.5-5.6 @ 8 mm, 1.0 sec at f/11, ISO 100

can anyone tell this is the HDR processed image (actually it was an exposure fusion not tone mapping)... I only threw this one in here to set the scene

Bondi Waiting

NIKON D7000 + 8.0-16.0 mm f/4.5-5.6 @ 8 mm, 0.5 sec at f/9, ISO 100

This last image was taken well after sunset (6PM) with a two minute exposure to get a really milky ocean so the large boulder would float in the mist (thanks Suren ) - my favourite image from the day...

Floating

NIKON D7000 + 17.0-50.0 mm f/2.8 @ 17 mm, 120 sec at f/16, ISO 100 + 0.9GND

one thing I only noticed during post processing is how close the rock shelves and waves look in the images even though we were positioned high up on the cliffs above - even at 8mm I wasn't really expecting that...

Remorhaz wrote:Counter Swirls

I like this one, its a tricky composition to get with the portrait orientation, to get all the good stuff in you have to put teh horizon at the middle or close to which turns me off a bit, a bit of a catch 22.

Remorhaz wrote:Puffs and Stripes

I don't mind this one too, the yellows could be a bit darker on the RHS to get a much richer colour, I find the D7000 often blows the yellow and turns into that festy looking candy yellow rather than the more rich yellow that I used to get with the D80.

Composition wise, my eyes wander quite a bit, I think teh sky and the water movement action and the big rock compete a bit too much but none of them really have enough interest to hold the viewer. Possibly including more of the big rock or removing it may have helped make it a stronger image.

Remorhaz wrote:Bondi Waiting

the black fat rock draws the eye away too much, I would actually clone it out here, teh composition is very nice and I would not want to lose any space on teh left, but that rock has to go

HDR wise, I think bashing teh raw over the head with saturation and d-lighting/fill would have worked better.

The last image has quite a bit of potential, I would look at recropping and centring the rock in the frame, but thats just me.

#1 The differential in brightness in the top and bottom part of image causes it to be disjointed and not so believable. Since the textures are different between the top and bottom, this causes tension and I prefer this tension not be there. It's a difficult one to improve. [Personally I don't like the grotty yellow rock anyways but this is a matter of preference]

#2 I think you may have just missed the light here? I really like the S curve which strengthens the compo which makes it. I am undecided on the large rock. I reckon it could stay or go.

#3 Try this in BW.

#4 nice crop on this one. How about you put an orb or a fisherman silhoutte on the rock to make it more interesting...

Remorhaz wrote:one thing I only noticed during post processing is how close the rock shelves and waves look in the images

This is especially true for #4.

Thanks Gerry and Suren - lots of very useful feedback...

biggerry wrote:

Remorhaz wrote:Puffs and Stripes

I don't mind this one too, the yellows could be a bit darker on the RHS to get a much richer colour...Composition wise, my eyes wander quite a bit, I think teh sky and the water movement action and the big rock compete a bit too much but none of them really have enough interest to hold the viewer. Possibly including more of the big rock or removing it may have helped make it a stronger image.

surenj wrote:#2 I think you may have just missed the light here? I really like the S curve which strengthens the compo which makes it. I am undecided on the large rock. I reckon it could stay or go.

How about attempting to incorporate suggestions from both in one

Here's an earlier shot of this type (actually the first I took) so perhaps better/brighter light, helped the yellows/oranges some, cropped very differently - completely non pano (also removing the big rock)

surenj wrote:#4 nice crop on this one. How about you put an orb or a fisherman silhoutte on the rock to make it more interesting...

I'm pretty sure I asked a certain someone to run down there and jump on the rock and paint the orb for me

How about attempting to incorporate suggestions from both in one

There are a few things I like about the second image, however one aspect drives confusion for me as a viewer and I often see this in my own images (typically not until i have got home and editing them). The image has very nice elements, however there needs to be one dominant anchor point, the money element, at the moment there is two of those and whilst it is very tempting to include all these and it can often be at a detriment to teh overal feel and flow of a composition.

So, quick and easy, in this image the water movement and the pink cloud formation are both very good elements and in my books are 'money elements' (conflicting ones at that) hence the eye heads to the water but then flicks to the sky and back again, not knowing where to stop. The rocks provide a supporting element too which is crucial to the image - so the rework and decision on which 'money element' to use is easy in this case.

Crop the image to reduce the overall impact of the sky, this means it still acts as a good element but is second to the main element, the water movement. The eye leads thru the rocks to the water movement and is immersed at that point with the periphery vision in a nice after glow of the sky (sounds like a cheap porn story )

here it is, let me know if you want it removed.

In the first. 1 and 2 are conflicting key elements (money elements or whatever) and 3 is the supporting element.
In the second 1 is the key and element with 3 being the support and 2 the afterglow .

you could even crop a bit more off...

also, there was some cast colour in tehre too, particularly on the rocks, i adjusted that as well and also whacked in a control point too to bring out some detail in teh rocks.

I hope you can understand my engrish and bad grammar

Thanks Gerry! - you've given me lots to ponder - I really value your opinion and perseverance

I do find it hard not to include "everything" I find which "looks good"