In the Line of Fire
by kaushikbarat

Comment by Tranquil:
Greetings from the Critique Club!

First off, Welcome to DPC! Glad to see you started to submit. The following is a critique done by a group of users called the Critique Club who are dedicated to critiquing the works of other users. In my critiques, I tend to be as honest as possible without candy-coating, so nothing I say is a personal attack against you or anyone, it is just my feelings on the image. :)

The initial appeal of this shot is the warm color of the sun. You have captured this beautifully, and the clouds just seem to glow. The exposure is fine and the sun is acceptably blown out for a photograph like this.

The big problem in this shot is the composition. It is clear that the focal point of the shot is the boat in the "line of fire" but there is just too much empty space for the eye to travel to. There is nothing necessarily interesting in this space and to me it detracts from the image. I would start by cropping 1/3 from the left and the right of the shot making it almost a vertical panaramic, per se, at first. I would then crop out most of the clouds leaving you with a more compositionally appealing shot. The viewer's eyes would be immediately attracted by the bright sun, and then using the leading lines of the warm sun, the viewer would recognize the boat.

Depending on your camera's capabilities, this might have been the closest crop you could have done in-camera so this just seems to be a little nitpick of post-processing. It is still not a huge problem, but one to look into in future works.

Thank you for submitting --- what a great start! 74% is a rockin' way to start off your DPC career. Hope to see more of your work in the near future!

If you have any questions, concerns, or comments, feel free to PM me from my profile.

Thanks,
Lee

In the Line of Fire
by kaushikbarat

Comment by dbush:
Horizon should be up or down --- never in the center --- I would show more of sky since it is more interesting. Same with boat and sun --- it is almost dead center. Putting it to the left would make it more interesting and give the boat space to move into.

In the Line of Fire
by kaushikbarat

Comment by caba:
Looks like Puget Sound, good idea.

In the Line of Fire
by kaushikbarat

Comment by Pixelstate:
Very clever take on the challenge. I would suggest cropping out the top third of the shot would have mabe added more impact.

In the Line of Fire
by kaushikbarat

Comment by SDW:
Nice picture and title combination. Good technique

In the Line of Fire
by kaushikbarat

Comment by megryan:
Fitting title for a clever shot, Well done !

In the Line of Fire
by kaushikbarat

Comment by eqqman:
nice timing on this shot. while the sun and the boat with its shadow are interesting, theres a lot in this photo that doesnt do much for me - i wonder how it would look cropped and with a vertical alignment to keep that long reflection of the sun on the water

In the Line of Fire
by kaushikbarat

Comment by nborton:
nice job with the exposure

In the Line of Fire
by kaushikbarat

Comment by Bran-O-Rama:
Great capture and nice reflection of sun on the water. Just wish the composition wasn't so centered. The eyes don't wander and makes for a boring photograph, not much else to look at.

In the Line of Fire
by kaushikbarat

Comment by sglantz:
Great photo but I guess I would have to know the premise of the movie.