Ah, a tropical getaway! All that’s missing in the image is my hand holding my coconut drink….

Sorry, back to reality. The overall brightness is a bit high for me. If this was RAW, I’d open it in ACR and use my sliders until the kayakers (at least I think that’s what they are) looked good before bringing into PS. Then I’d reopen the original file again in ACR and back my exposure slider to the left until the details in the water had been retrieved. Probably a little highlight recovery in the plant area. Once the two images are in PS, I’d layer then and use an eraser to bring the corrected kayakers back into the image. Flatten. I might run smitten from Florabella b/c it is good with capturing blues.

I really like the vantage point from which the image was captured.

I like the sense of peeking over the top of the trees to see the view, for me it is slightly overexposed, I would have dropped my ISO to 100 and used a smaller aperture to let less light in or knocked back the exposure compensation a couple of steps. Love the blue and greens together.

The story that you are telling with this photo is very inviting. The 2 kayakers in the middle of the open ocean with nothing around but the beautiful blue water makes me want to jump into the photo and join them :). To make this picture pop even more, I would have increased the depth of field to focus more on the kayakers and darkened the picture. I think using a larger aperture number while focusing on the kayakers would have increased your depth of field and let less light into the camera, which would accomplish both things. You would also need to slow down your shutter speed to get the proper exposure with a larger aperture, but the photo might benefit from being a little underexposed due to the intense lighting. I would definitely keep the trees in the foreground as I think they frame the kayakers, emphasize the beautiful ocean and anchor the shot. I would love to know where this shot was taken as your photo entices me to go there. Thank you for sharing!

I love the clarity in the water and the way you framed it with the greens on both sides. Great composure. I think the earlier comments addressed the exposure with some very good advice. You’ll probably have very good luck taming the brightness with their tips.

Composure is a big part of photography. Anyone can snap a shutter, but setting the shot up compellingly takes a good “eye”. It looks like you’ve got that! Good job. :)

Thank You all for you comments. This was my first week with my new D90. I never owned a DSLR before and after stumbling on Courtney’s Blog I was hooked :) I’m trying to photograph in different camera settings to learn about exposure and shutter speed etc. (how they affect the image).

@ Carey…This was taken in JPEG and after snapping a few images in RAW format, I can see how much more control you have over the editing in ACR. I like your “trick” with the layers and flattening the image to make it stand out. That will be something I will always consider when I do editing. From now on my DSLR is set to capture in RAW format. THANKS !!

@Karen….I never thought about exposure compensation. I now realized that a smaller aperture and lower ISO would have been better. Thanks for the tip!

@Emily….I agree a larger aperture number and slower shutter speed would have helped with better exposure. Thank You!
This was taken at the St. Regis Kauai in Princeville overlooking Hanalei Bay.

@Bobbi Jo….I agree the tips re: exposure is priceless. Thanks for the Composure complements! I was on a balcony and couldn’t go forward or backwards (50mm) so that was my only option. lol When I get a zoom lens I’ll know to include other objects to help frame an image. Thank You very much!!

This is beautiful shot! I agree with the exposure. I would lower quite a bit, and brighten the parts up I wanted brighter ( I use photoshop) I would also saturate the picture more to give it more rich coloring. I love the clarity with the water.

I am hooked! I love the critique me! :)

Thanks for submitting this photo! I like how you included a subject in the water, the kayakers, instead of just an image of the water. It helps to tell a better story. The image is a little overexposed. This can be difficult with shooting on such a bright day. I typically shoot in spot metering 99% of the time but I just learned about a trick of when at the beach like this to try and use evaluative/matrix mode. This would probably have helped to prevent the photo from being overexposed. You could also have lowered your shutter speed to possibly 1/800. I do like the bushes in the picture as it add another element to your photo. However, I wish the kayakers were in the top or left third instead of the center of the image. All of this being said, I really like your edit you send and I included in the I Learned this week. You did a fantastic job of bringing out the colors of the water and showing the ocean floor. Thank you for submitting a photo and please remember that the photo is your vision so keep that in mind when you read the critiques!