Photo Critique

[gatepc]

Hay guys I just wanted to know what people honestly think of the following photograph. I have only been shooting for about 2 years now and use Aperture almost exclusively ( almost never touch photoshop ). Anyway when I was participating in Skills USA State competition ( for which I took 1st place in California for photography ) I took this photograph let me know what you think! ( a few different versions )

Version 1 (orignal is 51MPs from 11 exposures combined in photoshop) full high res version here Warning don't click unless you have at least 2GBs of ram ( its a 51MP image thats why )

Other versions

 

[emorydunn]

I like the full colour and the black & white one but really it's pretty hard to do any sort of critique with small images like that. Do you have high resolution versions online somewhere?

Also, was this the winning photo in the contest or was it another?

 

[gatepc]

I like the full colour and the black & white one but really it's pretty hard to do any sort of critique with small images like that. Do you have high resolution versions online somewhere?

Also, was this the winning photo in the contest or was it another?

Alright I posted up a link to the full res version. ( I don't have full res versions up for the other two versions though )

also about the contest, they did not only rate us for our submitted photo be we also had to present our portfolio and we were interviewed.

 

[emorydunn]

That's a stunning photo. It looks like you put a lot of time into making that.

As for a critique, personally I think the bridge on the left detracts from the composition. The buildings are very majestic but the bridge pulls away from that. But the colours are fantastic and I love the reflections in the water. Also, that is one of the cleanest panoramas I've seen, I couldn't find any stitch points and the buildings are sharp with now blur at all.

One more question, where was this taken? It looks terribly familiar but I can't quite place it.

EDIT, never mind. San Diego, just looked it up on Flickr.

 

[sukanas]

great photo! i actually like the bridge there. (photo critiquing is so biased anyways). photo quality wise, yeah just like the previous poster said, super clean panorama!

 

[Lola M]

I LOVE the color version!

 

[Designer Dale]

The detail in the hi-rez copy is great. It opened a 151MB PhotoShop file! The "bridge" turns out to be a fully loaded aircraft carrier...

I like the composition a lot, but I would like to see more headroom over the center buildings. If you go to the large file and zoom in, there is crap in the sky in a line above the bow of the ship. Probably aircraft lights. Clone them out and you have a great poster.

Dale

 

[gatepc]

The detail in the hi-rez copy is great. It opened a 151MB PhotoShop file! The "bridge" turns out to be a fully loaded aircraft carrier...

I like the composition a lot, but I would like to see more headroom over the center buildings. If you go to the large file and zoom in, there is crap in the sky in a line above the bow of the ship. Probably aircraft lights. Clone them out and you have a great poster.

Dale

Thanks for this suggestion! I will clean that part of the image up. Also I thank everyone else for the tips/suggestions, keep them coming this is an nice learning experience for me thanks!

 

[emorydunn]

The detail in the hi-rez copy is great. It opened a 151MB PhotoShop file! The "bridge" turns out to be a fully loaded aircraft carrier...

Wow, you're right. I noticed the planes when I zoomed in the first time but I never actually connected it to the zoomed out version *facepalm*

 

[gatepc]

I was looking over the image and I can't believe I never noticed but apparently there are a lot of "hot" pixels . I was using one of my schools camera's when I shot this ( Canon XTI with a 70-200L lens ) I usually shot with my personal camera ( in sig ) the Canon XTI seems to be a lot worse at long exposure images ( in terms of quality ) then my Sony I wonder why? I don't think I have ever had a "hot" pixel with my Sony even on 15 min exposures hmm, does anyone have an answer to this?

 

[imationx]

I like the color version. Very nice photo!

 

[Woodrow72]

I have seen the photo's at this competition, I have competed at nationals for Skills USA in 2 different competitions for 3 years. From what I have seen this is a good photo.

I would recommend that for this competition you have a portrait as well. Landscapes do well but portraits will stand out as well

 

[gatepc]

I have seen the photo's at this competition, I have competed at nationals for Skills USA in 2 different competitions for 3 years. From what I have seen this is a good photo.

I would recommend that for this competition you have a portrait as well. Landscapes do well but portraits will stand out as well

Very nice advice nice to find another Skills USA member on the internet as well Great photographs BTW

 

[macrumormonger]

Great pic of Downtown Whale's Vagina. From Coronado? I think every photographer should go down there.

Vanilla

HDR