A peaceful beginning
by juliannj

Comment by MadMan2k:
Very nice colors and the small ripples in the water look good, but I'm not sure the trees on the left add much. Maybe some silhouettes in the bottom of the frame might have worked better to complement the distant and simple horizon.

Double the Skyscape
by juliannj

Comment by RianBotes:
From the Critique Club

Just short of a 6 on the DPC voting scale and High on your score rankings.

The idea is good for the challenge and original even though reflections comes a dozen at a time. It's a simple yet effective shot with comp good sticking to some basic rules Im sure you are familiar with. It's a very peaceful shot and in essence there truly is nothing wrong with it on a technical level.
Simple things that could have been done to create a stronger effect and have voters tip more towards the higher end of the voting scale is
1) Slower shutter and have some motion blur in the sky and have the water turn softer
2) wait for another time of day to have the light softer and in event of being morning or evening the colours richer
3) Lower angle to get closer to the water and bring the viewer more in contact with the scene.

All of the above creates an entirely different scene which is maybe not what you wanted.. But it does create a stronger image in the general viewer's mind and automatically moves the image up in the rankings.

Congrats on a good shot and keep them coming

Regards
Rian Botes

Double the Skyscape
by juliannj

Comment by jomari:
Beautiful! Double value with the reflections.

Double the Skyscape
by juliannj

Comment by Pangurban:
Beautiful. I was wondering what it might have looked like if the land horizon had been centralsied. I think I might have liked to have seen more of the lovely sky reflected.

Double the Skyscape
by juliannj

Comment by Dave Gordon:
beautiful reflections.

Double the Skyscape
by juliannj

Comment by MadMan2k:
Good job with the dynamic range and I like the texture in the water and the way the cloud reflections look.

Double the Skyscape
by juliannj

Comment by nygold:
The reflection is as interesting as the sky. Great job on this.

Daybreak at Big Bay Lake
by juliannj

Comment by JakeKurdsjuk:
Critique Club Comment:

First off, let me compliment you on your view!! I'd love to be able to wake up to that every morning. Sunrises tend to disappear much faster than sunsets in my experience, to bravo on capturing a beautiful one.

While the scene is absolutely stunning, there are a few things with how you processed the image that made it less than ideal for me (I was one of your 5's). First off, as Devinder mentioned initially, the reds. They can be notoriously had to tame, especially with flowers, and while you've managed to preserve the details within them, they are certainly over-saturated. I'm also wondering if your color treatment didn't lose some of the wonderful oranges and yellows that are hinted at closer to the horizon? Selective color adjustments are always safer bets here, though a little more time consuming. Without knowing specifically what you did in post it's hard for me to suggest ways to correct or avoid doing this in the future, but beware of the Saturation slider as it can make some colors pop while simultaneously blowing out others.

Compositionally it is fairly sound, though the decking/walk in the bottom left is a little distracting. Were you to crop up from the bottom right corner (you want to save those blues) and land the horizon on the bottom Rule Of Thirds line I believe it removes enough of it to keep it from being a line that leads you away from the subject. One other little nit to pick for me are the vertical lines of the building. Camera angle has given you a slight forward tilt there that it easily corrected with a vertical perspective adjustment tool available in just about every editor.

I hope to see many more beautiful sunrises from you in the future!!

Message edited by author 2014-09-11 10:13:32.

Daybreak at Big Bay Lake
by juliannj

Comment by MargaretNet:
Red sun rising

Daybreak at Big Bay Lake
by juliannj

Comment by Gordon_1:
Stunning color well captured and composed..well done