Visited Malibu last night and got to get a few long exposure shots of the pier just as the sun was setting. this is a composite of about 5 vertical pictures, all of which were shot at: ISO 100, F22, with a 1.5" exposure. I did minimal post as I just adjusted the lighting curves a bit, bumped the contract/brightness up, adjusted the light tones by less than 5 points, and sharpened the image using a high pass filter. Is there any other way I could make this picture just THAT much better, or is this one that should just be left with minimal adjustment? And I guess as a P.S; what do you guys think of the composition? could I have changed the angle or camera height at all to get maybe a more aesthetically pleasing shot?
For the little it may be worth I'll start with its a beautiful shot. Great color without being cooked. Only question/critique, why f22? I assume it's because you didn't have any filters to get the exposure as long as you wanted, and I've done the exact same thing when I needed to, but I don't see what the 1.5" shot got you as it didn't smooth the water with the surf being what it was. That f stop probably isn't the sharpest for your lens so unless you're getting a specific long exposure you want it may not be worth it. Otherwise, like I said, I like the shot and I could see the city using it on a site or a local restaurant/shop wanting it on the wall. Good job.
Thank you for the feed back! I shot with F22 because that was the highest f-stop the lens i was using could go and i was trying to make sure the entire pier was in focus; I was also, like you said, trying to get the picture as dark as possible so I could expose for as long as I could to try and get the waves as smooth as I could, but any longer of an exposure made it way too burned out.
since you were shooting at f22 i would of actually liked it if you could have got a sun star through the pylons and had the end of the pier on the left side bottom third
The way the shoreline is there wouldn't really allow for that this time of year, as the sun sets behind some small hills off to the right; but I see what you're saying about having some god-rays coming through the right side pier posts. And as for the reason I had the pier in the position in frame that it is, I was trying to experiment with long exposure and water, to try to get that smooth/ghost-y water effect but didn't quite expose for long enough to get the full effect.
that sucks maybe at another point in the year you could try it...the long exposure you are trying to achieve is a very long one probably over 3 minutes you'll need ND filters for sure and a stop watch also grab a photography app on your phone to help get the right exposure time aperture and nd setup if you don't already