Ruins sunset

[armando_m]

"Ixtepete" archeological site, quite close to my house, in the nearly 30 yrs I have lived here, this is my first visit to this place, it gets crowded on March 21, yesterday it was pretty quiet, will certainly visit again.

Single image, pulled the shadows in LR 4

[Don Schaeffer]

Wonderful color

[EOSThree]

The sky color is beautiful, I like the angle, with the second set of ruins in the background and the stairs in the foreground. It's a unique angle, but there's no mistaking the pyramid base. This one screams "candidate for HDR" I find myself straining to see more detail in the ruins.

[llewpics]

I like the overall exposure and the scene. I am not too sure about the overall "story" of the image - not sure, without the title, what I am looking at ...still, overall a nice image.

[armando_m]

Thanks Don, EOS, and llewpics,

here is another version , slightly lighter and I think better composition

[Frog]

I haven't commented earlier because I'm lacking in adequate language skills.
I'm not sure whether I like the one with figures or the one without better.
Just brings to me the feel of no matter how great we think we've done, that in the end, all we're building is future ruins..

[Greg McCary]

I prefer the first one. The sky is over saturated in the second one, everything else is fine.

[armando_m]

Thanks Frog and Greg,

here is a last attempt , with less saturation on the sky

[hminx]

I also prefer the first one although a bit more foreground detail would be nice, also you could possibly clone out those power lines in the top right. Last edit works really well too.

[shootme]

I like your last attempt Armando, composition is right and I think the tones and colours are great.

[EOSThree]

#3 is my favorite too. The foreground and steps have a nice warm glow to them. I was straining for more detail in the lower right center of the first attempt.

[naznomore_92]

Very nice. I really like the first picture because it is darker more contrast. I have been experimenting with evening shots as well and I hope to catch a photo like yours one day. great job.

[Herriot]

I also like the first image the most (although the composition in the last is the best) but feel the title could be better as I am not sure what the couple in the shot represent exactly in terms of a story,

[armando_m]

Thanks Pete, shootme, Eos, naz and herriot

Naz, if you shoot something like this, I'll tell you what I did, I exposed so the sky wouldn't have blown highlights, and used a low ISO , this made the image in the camera look black for everything but the sky, I shot in RAW, then during post processing I made the shadows lighter.
The dark corner in shot #1 is my choice, I felt making it brighter didn't add anything of value, and looked unnatural given the light is coming from the opposite direction of the corner

[GB1]

Hmm. It seems to have a lot going for it Armando. I like the overall contrast and the angle you got of the stairs, and of course, the colors. At the same time, something seems in conflict here (though that's not necessarily a bad thing); maybe the warm colors are at odds with the ominous subject, esp the dark area that looks sinister. Something also seems to be missing, like a person? (I don't think one should be there. Just seems like it could have a person in it ..). Who knows. This one may be a portfolio shot though, so nice work.

G