White Cliffs Sunset

I like the composition - just comes over as a bit dull, tonally, and lacks excitement & pop. Dark areas have all blocked up, and there doesn't seem much detail in the light cliff face either. The sky is a nice, delicate shade, rather than looking like an atom bomb has exploded just off-screen. :)

Hope that's useful
 
ancient_mariner said:
I like the composition - just comes over as a bit dull, tonally, and lacks excitement & pop. Dark areas have all blocked up, and there doesn't seem much detail in the light cliff face either. The sky is a nice, delicate shade, rather than looking like an atom bomb has exploded just off-screen. :)

Hope that's useful
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Thanks Toni. I tried to keep as much as possible to the original, it was getting darker as the sun went down over my shoulder and under the shelter of the downs, and what sunlight there was left was on the cliff face, and the rest of the scene was in pending darkness. I felt that to lighten the shadows would remove the soft sunset glow and bleed it all into a almost daylight scene.

Anyway I have lighten the dark areas and for me it is now not the scene as I took it?? whatView attachment 25482 is your thoughts?

Geoff
 
Hi Geoff, I appreciate the dilemma. The lighter image is more immediately grabbing compared with the previous version, even if it's not what you recall - at this size it's a 'better' image for the viewer IMO, though it may have gone a little too far the other way. It does help to see details in the shadows on top of the cliffs, and you could use a darkening grad on the bottom if you wanted to reduce the lightness there and balance it with the darker hillside above. It may also be that, seen across the full width of a computer screen, the original was far more detailed and life-like, while the lighter now looks a little too light.

Image size has such a strong influence on how tonal range works, for me at least. Small images often need to be much punchier than large ones to carry across the same impact.
 
Thanks Bobby, ----and Toni, please free to have a bash at it if you want to?

Geoff
 
It's a classic shot of the subject, but it is very soft.
 
viv1969 said:
It's a classic shot of the subject, but it is very soft.
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Cheers Viv, It was a very soft and still sunset and I wanted to keep my picture as true to the scene as possible,

Thanks for your feedback, I appreciate it

Geoff
 
ST4 said:
It's a bit soft. Actually very. The light and sky show promise as do the cliffs. The houses in front are a nuisance, I would try and compose in a way to lose such a distraction.
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Cheers Steve, surprisingly enough the old coastguard cottages are quite iconic and are featured in all the shots from this part of the hill much, to loose them requires further to the cliff edge and then you loose the shape of the cliffs, unless that is you can get on the beach at low tide as I did this visit and got some great shots.
Thanks for your feedback, much appreciated,

Geoff
 
The colour version of your seven sisters shot in Flickr has much better focus.
 
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