Here goes my first post on the site. Looking for compositional/technical/post-processing/general artistic feedback. If you think the photo warrants a question then I'm happy to answer.
It's already gotten a 1 star from someone so you're not going to hurt my feelings with feedback! Haha
Excited About My First Post on Fstoppers
There is definitely more than 1 star in this image.
The sunstar is nice, but a bit large for my taste. The rocks going off into the lake are leading me away from the hills/mountains on the far side. The trees on the left side of the frame are not contributing, there either needs to be more of the trees included or they need to be excluded all together. There seems to be some flaring all over the place (inherent with shooting into the sun). It is also slightly over-saturated in my opinion.
The light on the rock in the lower left is nice, as is the light filtering through the grass on the lower left.
Overall the image is a little busy compositionally and has a few optical issues. The light is nice, I hope you had fun in the moment you shot it. :)
-SL
Awesome feedback, much appreciated.
This photo is 2 of 3 exposures from a bracket, the third of which has the tighter sun star that you would probably prefer. I do to, but after talking to another photographer I respect, his opinion was the smaller star wouldn't justify the rays through the grass in the lower left so now I'm not sure there is a version that pleases both. I think I'll do a different edit entirely and do a comparison. Agree with the tree and the lense flares were left on purpose, but I'm not JJ Abrams and there aren't enough to seem deliberate so I will probably pull them as a part of the comparison. Agree with the saturation as well...I found out my new monitor is overly bright and everything I was working on turned out dark and oversaturated.
Original composition was with the rocks coming in from the left to the island in center and the bay behind, but I got caught up in the sunrise and the moment and turned it into this. No regrets, it was a beautiful morning. 😉
Thanks again!