Laguna sunsets

[J. M. Livingston]

The colorful sunsets have returned to Laguna Beach, went out to Wood's Cove on Friday and captured a couple of images that were worthy of editing. Not quite as colorful as I was hoping for, but still plenty there. Glad our boring summer skies are gone.

A few minutes later, moved a little bit to the left, and faced towards the south to capture this one.

 

[AlanLichty]

The second one is an interesting composition but I do like the way the light and wave motion mix in the first one a lot. The sun might look bright but last time I glanced up it looked that way too

 

[J. M. Livingston]

Yup, radically different takes on the same sunset aren't they? Just 20' away from each other and a 90 degree turn towards the south for that second one. While I really like the 2nd image the 1st is the one I pick when I have to choose between the two, but they both speak to me just in different voices.

 

[Ben Egbert]

Two great images here.

 

[JimFox]

Very cool John! That part of Laguna has been tugging at me too recently.

I like both of these, and Woods Cove is so cool on how many different looks and feels to a shot can come about simply by moving a few feet.

I think #1 is my favorite too, I like the rushing water and the way the golden clouds are positioned in the sky.

 

[Mike Lewis]

Well, you have not made it easy on us, have you, trying to pick a favorite between these 2. But bucking the trend perhaps a little bit, I find myself drawn more to the 2nd image, as I like the water coloring and textures a little more, and I also love that pink tinged cloud perfectly positioned above the large rock to the left, providing some great balance between the sky and foreground elements. Of course, both are very impactful images, very well seen and captured.

I think this is a good lesson too, speaking for myself anyway, as I often get stuck overshooting a very nice scene, when I could be walking around elsewhere to get some other views that might turn out just as well or better. I then come back to edit things, and realize I have many many versions of essentially the same image that are tedious to wade through, when I already had captured the essence of the image early on in my sequence of shots. Knowing when to move on from even a killer composition in search of the next one is a great skill that you have exhibited here for certain.

ML

 

[lionking]

The first works better for me, composition/light wise, i would brighten the left side a bit, and probably would blurry the blown highlights around the sun if it was mine.

 

[J. M. Livingston]

Well, you have not made it easy on us, have you, trying to pick a favorite between these 2. But bucking the trend perhaps a little bit, I find myself drawn more to the 2nd image, as I like the water coloring and textures a little more, and I also love that pink tinged cloud perfectly positioned above the large rock to the left, providing some great balance between the sky and foreground elements. Of course, both are very impactful images, very well seen and captured.

I think this is a good lesson too, speaking for myself anyway, as I often get stuck overshooting a very nice scene, when I could be walking around elsewhere to get some other views that might turn out just as well or better. I then come back to edit things, and realize I have many many versions of essentially the same image that are tedious to wade through, when I already had captured the essence of the image early on in my sequence of shots. Knowing when to move on from even a killer composition in search of the next one is a great skill that you have exhibited here for certain.

ML

Thank you Mike, I often suffer that same thing you describe - lots of shots of the same thing that are essentially identical. I was happy to have a couple different compositions that really worked well that evening. While #1 is my favorite with the rush of water leading the eye into the setting sun, #2 really grabs me as the triangular cloud is pretty much the inverse of the triangular water area.

The first works better for me, composition/light wise, i would brighten the left side a bit, and probably would blurry the blown highlights around the sun if it was mine.

My vignetting on the left side is definitely a little much, one of those times when sleeping on an image before calling it complete would have been a good idea. For blurring the highlights what would you recommend, just a little bit of gaussian blur feather in via a layer mask?

John

 

[lionking]

My vignetting on the left side is definitely a little much, one of those times when sleeping on an image before calling it complete would have been a good idea. For blurring the highlights what would you recommend, just a little bit of gaussian blur feather in via a layer mask?

John[/QUOTE]
I would go with orton, you can control it's strength and location by masking...

 

[J. M. Livingston]

I already use an Orton technique and did on this image (almost all my images in fact), so it'd just be a matter of going back and masking it out.

 

[Dave Dillemuth]

Beautiful set of images. Both nice but prefer the balance of the 2nd.

 

[Bob Denton]

These are great.

 

[Doug P]

I love the interesting composition of the second along with the atmospherics. Nice