Hawaii coast-- my first photo post

[Dylan8i]

heres my first photo to be critiqued.




this image was taken in september of 2005 in hawaii. it was taken on the big island of hawaii on the north (eastern) side. i don't have the shooting specifics, but it was taken with my canon 1s is, close to sunset ( maybe an hour before) after a long hard hike.

[GB1]

Dylan - Welcome to PR forums. I like the top shot. It has several different planes such as the foreground grasses, the middle water, the huge cliffs and rocks and then the threatening sky. I think it's well done but I also think some experimenting in Photoshop or the like could make it even better, perhaps by playing around with the Levels or contrast, and also be sharping the image just slightly. I do like the foreground grasses, but not sure about how dark they are... the darkness almost seems out of place in comparison to the rest of the photo - do you agree? Then again, not sure what you could have done about it.

The bottom shot is Ok, but it seems that you could really have used a macro lens to get really close to this fellow.

Again, welcome to the boards,

GB

[Dylan8i]

hey, thanks for the critique, the bottom shot i just threw up as a signature. it was taken at night (with a flash) and cropped. i have a bunch of 2 lined salamanders up close, the unsual part was i found him sitting on that trillium leaf.


as far as the hawaii pic goes, i have one from the same spot at the same time w/o the forground grass and it doesn't look nearly as good.

as for the photoshop goes, i'm highly AGAINST altering major parts of photos afterwards (cloning out stuff etc). cropping, and contrast and that stuff is usually ok though, so i'll try it.

[Dylan8i]

hows this one work, i sharpened, and played with the contrast, lightness and saturation (just barley). the sharpness def did help.

[GB1]

hows this one work, i sharpened, and played with the contrast, lightness and saturation (just barley). the sharpness def did help.

I can tell you sharpened it, which looks better. Like you mentioned, the contrast and lightness don't seem to be changed a lot.

I think you captured the diversity and beauty of the Hawaiian islands here. Now, as they say, on to your next (photo) mission..

GB