Critiques?

I am thinking of printing this on canvass for myself and possibly trying to sell a few copies at my local camera shop. This photo has only been cropped, sharpened, and de-noised using PSE. Any other advice, critiques, ect would be greatly appreciated. Also, since this is the first picture I will ever have printed, I would appreciate any advice on how to make sure the image is transferred accurately. I have heard horror stories of photographers getting crappy prints of an otherwise awesome picture.

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Permalink Reply by CameraClicker on November 23, 2011 at 7:33am

I used to shoot slides and now, most of what I shoot is viewed on a computer monitor. My experience has been that prints look darker. Most of the commercial prints I have done are just little 4R size prints, or photo books. I shopped around to a number of the local outlets and settled on Blacks to do my prints as they offered consistent quality with minimal fuss. In Hong Kong, I found I could rely on a local Kodak Express as well. When I print my own photos, I make them much brighter before sending them to an Epson printer. The light the photo is viewed in has a huge effect on the way a print looks too.

I like your photo. Perhaps you can find a printer you can work with to get the desired result. Does your local camera shop do printing?

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Permalink Reply by Jared Weaver on November 23, 2011 at 8:01am

They do, and they seem to do a good job at it. I was planning on using them since they're local and the work they have on display is very nicely done. They would also be easier to deal with if the picture isn't being transferred accurately.

Also, I was thinking of cropping some of the black out of the top to give it a wider angle look.

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Permalink Reply by nathan mccreery on November 23, 2011 at 5:30pm

This whole photograph just feels too dark to me. I realize that it was done just at dusk, however it just seems too dark. I would lighten it up. Most any lab will do good work if you give them a good file.

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Permalink Reply by Jared Weaver on November 23, 2011 at 5:56pm

I still have the original image on my home computer, so I will defiantly apply what everyone has been suggesting. It is a little to dark as I look at it more. But I really want to keep a nice contrast between the totally black clouds, the fading light and the city without introducing too much grey to the cloud line.

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Permalink Reply by Jared Weaver on November 25, 2011 at 11:41am

And I just realized that this thread is in the wrong place. Sorry everyone!

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Permalink Reply by nathan mccreery on November 25, 2011 at 2:02pm

Be careful in your attempt to have visual impact that you don't make the photograph go "dead" because it's too dark.

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Permalink Reply by Jared Weaver on November 30, 2011 at 12:20pm

Here it is re-done. I cropped, de-noised, brightened, and slightly de-saturated the reds and yellows.

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Permalink Reply by Christopher Fischbeck on November 30, 2011 at 12:31pm

I like the crop off the top and bottom so far, but I think it might be worth a try cropping some off of each side. The right side is really dark like the part that you took off the top, so maybe trimming that a little bit and some off the left edge would give the photo a little more closed-in feel and bring out the city lights and the (totally awesome and incredibly well-captured) bolt of lightning a little more. I really like this photo because of the depth in the clouds, and their different colors and how it blends in with the fading sun, awesome job!

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Permalink Reply by Jared Weaver on November 30, 2011 at 12:40pm

I also have this one.

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Permalink Reply by Christopher Fischbeck on November 30, 2011 at 1:02pm

Another amazing shot! How did you manage to get the lightning? Did you have one of those fancy contraptions that sets off the shutter when lightning flashes?