Sky on Fire

[Pipebender74]

Whilst going back through my photo archive I found this image taken with my 450D of the evening sky at sunset. The image was taken at Wells Next The Sea in Norfolk in October. I had never seen such an impressive sky before. I hope the picture does it justice.

https://www.flickr.com/gp/147396624@N03/Ybz690

[tesarver]

Re: Sky on Fire

Yes you did capture the redness of the sky, however the foreground really lets the image down IMO.

Tom

[TonyT]

Re: Sky on Fire

Really dramatic sky, I like Wells, I went there on disaster relief.

[Pipebender74]

Re: Sky on Fire

Hi Tom,

Many thanks for your feedback. As a novice looking to improve my composition, what would you advise I could do to improve a shot like this.
To be fair we had just arrived on site and I was keen to get the shot before it faded but as you say, it could have been better.

Tony

[ColytonJohn]

Re: Sky on Fire

A great sunset shot but, as has been said, the foreground was costly.

How could you improve the shot? Really it's a case of finding a better location free of obstructions.

Cheers,
John

[AlexR!]

Re: Sky on Fire

Lovely colours, Tony.
I'm not sure, but one suggestion for improvement might be that the sky looks as if it is out of focus. I presume you have focused on the foreground buildings (which is fair enough, although as others have said they could be more interesting), and I am guessing at how far away they are, but if 20m then f/5.6 will only give you a depth of field back to 76m. At f/8 with all other things equal you would be focussing all the way out to infinity. Yes, you will have to compensate with ISO or increased shutter time, but many out there will generally recommend f/8 as many lens's sweet spot anyway. I also wonder whether the buildings would look better turned into silhouettes as that would lessen the pull they have.

[El Sid]

Re: Sky on Fire

Hi Tom,

Many thanks for your feedback. As a novice looking to improve my composition, what would you advise I could do to improve a shot like this.

Tony

In this case since you could eliminate the building you may have been better going wider and getting the whole of them in the shot. I have similar shots buried in my files, generally partial buildings in a shot like this only work if they are architecturally or pictorially interesting - eg a fancy chimney stack, a spire or a bird or several.

[H2OJunkie]

Re: Sky on Fire

Since you asked for thoughts I will give you mine. The sky is gorgeous. The bad thing though is that sunrises and sunsets are one of the most photographed things in the world. You as a budding photographer can ask yourself "how can I make my sunset/rise stand out from the rest". That is what will open up your artistic vision and make you start looking at them differently. Start here and find what you like and don't like. Critique the images and see what you can learn. Once you start opening up that door you will open it to a whole new world!

[Pipebender74]

Re: Sky on Fire

Thank you to everyone for your constructive comments.

Tony