Critique A couple of London from last year

[Tbant]

Hi all, a couple of different shots from me, the first was a lucky shot on the way home one evening. I was waiting at a crossing for the lights to change, I turned round and saw the shot so grabbed my camera out and I think I got a nice shot after some hopefully careful processing.


Thames from Blackfrias by Tbant, on Flickr


The second is in the same area, as the nights were drawing in I decided to try and capture some of the colours as the sun set and the buildings lit up. I wanted to try and find a slightly different perspective to shoot from and set out to make it a bit dramatic.
I wound up carrying my gear with me for the best part of a week waiting for the right evening and having a few practice sessions as I knew I would not have a lot of time when the scene was right. On the evening when everything was right as luck would have it Sony were doing a publicity stunt and changed the letters on the OXO tower to the buttons on the controller from the Playstation.


London Evening Thames Panorama. by Tbant, on Flickr


I would love to hear any thoughts and suggestions on how they could be improved.

Thanks,

Tim

 

[MWHCVT]

That cloud parting moment is lovely but I cannot help but the pavement dominates the scene to much the fact that your on the banks of the Thames and pavement is taking up vastly more of the frame than the Thames just feels wrong, I'd have much preferred to see you closer to the river ideally walking a little along the bank to take what ever that square structure on your bank is out of frame...

The second or nighttime shot I love as its shot at a time of day I love shooting but on the whole it feels a bit under exposed to me maybe about half a stop under and then I'd also like to see the shadow details lifted a little in addition to the exposure life, the composition is strong with the gangway leading you down and onto the boat, I'd have maybe liked a smidge more room at the bottom of frame as the boat feels a little squashed in down there but over all this is a really good image just needs a little polishing to bring it to life

Matt

 

[Brazo]

I would agree with Matt above, in addition (and it might just be my iPad) but the triangle of exposed sky in #1 seems like it was blown out and the highlights have been strongly recovered giving that grey look.

 

[Tbant]

Thanks to both of you for taking the time to comment.
On the first one I did have to recover the highlights a fair bit, but thought I had got away with not giving it too much of an HDR look.
When it comes to the composition looking back I agree that I could have found a better spot, but I do like the emptiness of the pavement and the way it draws you in.
Comments taken on board about the second one, I will revisit the raw file and have a play with the shadows and crop.

Thanks again for the feed back,

Tim