I spent a few days working near this wonderful beach in the North Island of New Zealand. I had scoped out this scene two nights before but the following morning it was very cloudy, however the next morning I ventured out early and was greeted by this sunrise.
The general idea & composition are appealing here, Geoff, but there is an overriding striking feature that I find unsettling - both images look as if they were made using a pink grad. The foreground, lit by skylight, completely lacks the pink hue I'd expect, looking slightly cyan by comparison (in the second image it IS slightly cyan).
I guess that if you haven't used some kind of colour gradient effect, one way or another, it must have really looked like this, but it looks unreal for me because of this issue.The sky overhead, illuminating the sand, would not have been as red as the area near the horizon, but this just doesn't look right.
I'm curious to know whether anyone agrees. Maybe it's just me.
I agree. It looks like the yellows and greens in the bottom are dodged with a seperate color balance. Also the cliffside on the right is completely underexposed as if a grad filter were used and underexposed the foreground peaking into the sky.
I really like the top image with the driftwood directly in the bottom left corner. I also really like the sun peaking behind the clouds in the second. Really good capture.
Agree on both points about composition, Justin.
Thanks for the feedback Chris & Justin. I did use an ND Gradient filter. I'll have another look at the editing to see what I can improve.
Heresy, I know, Geoff, but I've retired my ND grads. I'm the meticulous type, and take great care with tripod placement, aperture, exposure bracketing, etc, but I find grads a pain to use, and too often creating artifacts like black tree tops & chimneys, or reflections brighter than the sky, which do more harm than good.