this post was submitted on 20 Jun 2023
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Photo Critique

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Looking For Critique (lemmy.world)
submitted 1 year ago by AQuietObligation to c/photocritique
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Hey all, I'm a hobby photographer, took this one a couple days ago and can't seem to structure my own opinion about this snap.

I'm trying to convey the feeling of experiencing a sunset, but I don't think sunset is very well expressed in this picture. I tried to boost the colors a little bit to help, would love some feedback on best practice for that.

Also not sure if I've chosen the best crop, but that's somewhat secondary for me. Any and all feedback is welcome, I'm new to this whole Lemmy thing, here's hoping it goes well!

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[–] yenahmik 3 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I'm seconding that the colors in the sky are beautiful. I'm not sure you got the sunset vibe you may have been going for, but you nailed capturing twilight! I think for sunset, the timing of the pic was just probably a little too late in the day to get the right colors.

[–] AQuietObligation 2 points 1 year ago

Thanks for the compliment, I'll have to try and make it back to this spot a little earlier next time.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago (1 children)

It's not a bad shot at all. Colors are nice, composition is interesting. It might be a touch underexposed, but if you're trying to sell dusk then that may not be a bad thing. The only time of day the sky looks like that is going to be sunset or sunrise, so I think your colors are mostly OK. A little bit on the cool side maybe, but that's probably fine.

Now, is it the feeling of a sunset? No, not really. There's nothing in the picture that conveys that feeling. You do have some interesting things going on -- humans dwarfed by massive architecture, antiquity contrasted with people on their cellphones, a couple of interesting little vignettes in each cluster of people -- but none of this says "sunset" to me. I think the image would be almost as effective if it was broad daylight, albeit a broad daylight with soft diffuse lighting. In other words, if you took "sunset" out of the image you wouldn't lose much, except for the very pleasant background gradient.

But even if you didn't hit what you were aiming at, I think that this is overall a fairly successful image. If I took it, I would be very happy with it.

[–] AQuietObligation 3 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

Thanks for the critique, I really appreciate it! I'm still happy with this picture, but I think I'll have to realign how I view it, as I definitely dont feel like I achieved what I set out to do when I snapped it.

[–] snapsofnature 2 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Hey! Want to start with that I love the colors of the sky!

  • For me my eye is hunting for something to focus on.

  • It helps when doing "landscape" type images to have foreground interest.

  • The only other thing is maybe recover some shadows. It's pretty dark.

Hope that helps.

[–] AQuietObligation 2 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

Do you think cropping in on one of the groups of people would help with visual interest? If so, what apsect ratio should I try? I tend not to like the look of square crops, but I think it could be worth a try here

[–] snapsofnature 1 points 1 year ago

I think a panorama crop could be pretty interesting and playing around with the rule of thirds.

[–] mrpibb 2 points 1 year ago (1 children)

If you're going for people experiencing a sunset looks like you nailed it. Love the deep colors. Not a big sunset at the beach and cocktail in your hand type of feeling, but it's a sunset scene and it's almost over and nearly time to leave and you can see these folks soaking up every last bit. Great vibe here. The people make an arch to compliment the architecture. I like how the people are looking in all different directions. It opens the picture up. Well done.

Here's one of my photos you've reminded me of. Originally I wished for a bit "stronger" sunset here, but now I've come to like the peaceful soft colors.

[–] AQuietObligation 2 points 1 year ago

Appreciate the feedback :)

I really enjoy that picture, the soft colors make it very easy for my eye to travel around the photo.