Now THAT is a sunset

[Xia_Ke]

Had an AWESOME sunset tonight at work, so I took some pics for both/either our website or for prints maybe for our gift shop. Can't decide which shot of the building I like the most. What do you guys think?

[EOSThree]

I think #3 is the best, I wish the building were a little brighter though. I am not a big silhouette fan.

[Xia_Ke]

Thanks for your input EOSThree How's this? Adjusted exposure and fill light a tad in Lightroom to bring out the building more...

[Frog]

I liked the third one best, too.
The last one with the lighter building seems to have lost some of the sky color but I'm not sure if that's because the foreground and building are brighter or because the sky was adjusted too.

[Tyson L. Sparks]

#3 Great shot.

[Louis1]

Put me in the third shot favorite, too. Nice work, Xai

[Greg McCary]

I like the last one but they all seem to be leaning to the right. I think that I would straighten the horizon. Maybe it's just a perspective lean to the building. Do you see it?

[readingr]

Nicely taken sunsets. I disagree with Greg about the rotation as the house is vertical its just the horizon tilts down which is okay where architecture is involved in my book. Add me to the #3 list

Roger

[Xia_Ke]

Thanks everyone

Greg I do see what you mean. I think it is from the barrel distortion of the w/a combined with the fact that you really can't make out the shoreline for perspective. I'll see if I can't correct the distortion on it. Not very good at doing it though so I hope it comes out okay

[swmdrayfan]

Xia.....it beats the devil out of anything I could do. I can't even get daylight right...lol.
Count me in on #3
John

[Xia_Ke]

Thanks John I'm going to chalk this one up to luck though

[Greg McCary]

I have a edit where I rotated it ever so slightly if you want to see it?

[Xia_Ke]

Most definitely Greg Please feel free to edit any shots I post in the Critique forum. I am here to learn

[Greg McCary]

[Xia_Ke]

Thanks Greg Now did you just rotate that or did you take out some of the barrel distortion? Looks a little more level than a simple rotating Just for comparison, here's the original, unprocessed shot (other than converting RAW to jpeg and resizing)

[Greg McCary]

I rotated the whole picture but then has to lasso the flag pole and rotate it to straighten it back level. I use a crop line to draw through the tower to get it straight, before I crop.

[Xia_Ke]

Sorry Greg, I'm not sure I follow you on exactly what you did Could you elaborate?

[Greg McCary]

I used the crop tool to straighten the horizon, when using the crop tool I use the lines and move them around to make sure everything lines up just before I crop. This rotation left the flagpole leaning left. I then lasso the flag pole and use Edit>Transform>rotate. I rotate the flag pole until it's level and then use the clone stamp to clone the areas left bear by the rotatoin. I am not real good at explaining this but I hope you understand? Try not to use your lens at it's widest mm and the distortion will be less.

[Xia_Ke]

Thanks Greg. Never really used the lasso tool before so wasn't quite sure what you meant. Makes perfect sense now. Guess I have something new now to learn and experiment with

[Greg McCary]

I think your distortion might have been in the pole and the horizon was just unlevel? When I leveled the horizon the distortion showed up in the pole? I am not sure though???

[Xia_Ke]

The pole was the center point so the image should be more distorted the further towards the edges you get. Any attempt to level either side of the pole is just going to throw the whole pole off. The problem is that it is the only straight line object clearly visible in the pic so it shows up as being the most distorted. Or at least that's the only reason I can think of

[Greg McCary]

You may be right, but still a wonderful picture. I like it.

[Xia_Ke]

Thanks for all your help Greg Like I said above, feel free in the future to edit any photos I post in this forum. I'm always looking to learn and you've been a huge help ;)