Layout: Landscape or Portrait???

[Xia_Ke]

I was visiting my Grandmother for dinner tonight and as I was leaving, noticed the sun just about to duck below the trees. Grabbed the camera and snapped off a few shots before it disappeared. Can't decide which version works best though. What do you all think?

[Dylan8i]

i like the second one. the sun color seems more saturated... and either format is ok for me. I think the verticle one enhances the tree on the right, but i'd like to see the full reflection of clouds in the water.

[Xia_Ke]

Thanks Dylan I wanted to try and get plenty of cloud reflection (shot #1) but wasn't sure about the whole "no horizon in the middle" rule so didn't do a split shot

[Frog]

I like number 1 best. Better reflections.

[Xia_Ke]

DOH! Note to self, must be careful not to over process Here's a crop of the post processed image. Bumping up the fill light to bring out the tree line introduced "just a tad" of noise...LOL

[swmdrayfan]

They all work good for me.

[Dylan8i]

yeah now that i look at it again, i think the color difference i saw between 1 and 2 was jsut the angle of my monitor. so i'd say 1 is better cause of the reflections... but 3 is fine to.

[Greg McCary]

I say #1, That's an awesome shot. The color is better. I like the framing and reflection of the sky and tree.......

[Overbeyond]

Portrait or Landscape; Works equally well in both. And very nice too.

[gahspidy]

portrait works best for me, and the top (uncropped) or less cropped version.

[readingr]

#1 or #3 is best for me. I think I would opt for the portrait #1 because of the reflections in the water.

Roger

[Xia_Ke]

Thanks everyone for your input. As always, it's much appreciated So after some further tinkering, I'm realizing the above versions are not going to work due to the noise issues. Here is another version of it where I took a different approach and also resized to 8x10 format. Any better or should I have stuck with my original train of thought on this?

[KyRain]

I agree w the others, portrait looks best and the original as well, the latter version is
too dark imo. The lighter version plays off the interesting shapes of the clouds. It is a great shot.

[readingr]

The lst one is far to dark and you can't see the reflections so for me stick with the original.

Roger

[MonkeyWrench]

Your first shot is the one I like the best. Portrait I think works best here. It captures the reflection and symmetry. I'd stick with the first one even if I had to live with a smaller print. I also envy your grandmothers view.

[Xia_Ke]

Thanks for the input everybody! I'll have to go back to my original edit and see if I can't tone down the noise a bit. I'll see what I can come up with and post the results here