Dark and dramatic, or just too dark?

[screamingswifts]

Hi - Having been a reader of this excellent forum for a little while now, I thought I'd pluck up the courage and post a photo or two.

Ok these are my first sunset attempts with my new canon 350D....nothing added, nothing taken away, just resized. All comments / critisism welcome.

Thanks in advanced. Tanya

 

[imcarm]

I don't know if it's my monitor but for some reason the overall images seems dark, but there appears to be a high contrast applied to all of them.

Great attempt Tanya and I'm sorry for the negitive feedback, but it could just be my monitor.

The second image is the best of the bunch.

 

[Jazz Monkey Jr]

I am not very good at Photoshop but I have had a play as they look a bit flat.

As you can see from the levels, all your photo is in the middle, making it look a bit flat.

I tweaked the levels to give it more contrast.

Then I increased the saturation and ran it through Noiseware.

This took me 5 minutes and makes it look more dramatic IMO.

 

[Jazz Monkey Jr]

I had a go with the second one aswell, same process.
I hope you don't mind me playing with them, but trying to show you a few basics in Photoshop.

 

[imcarm]

Surprising what a difference a few post processing tweaks can make in PS, spot on Jazz Monkey Jr.

 

[screamingswifts]

Wow - thanks for the quick responce and advice !! I've got photoshop but knowing where to start is a bit daunting...will need to hunt down a good book or two I think.

Please feel free to play with the images all you like - I'm here to learn

 

[sbw]

http://iit.bloomu.edu/vthc/ps.html