Oh sunny day

Hey there~ I'll be critiquing this photo today. :3
So I'd like to start off with saying that this is a very beautiful photograph, you have lovely vibrant colors and examples of layers in the atmosphere, it actually makes me very happy haha.
Anyways, there's just a few things I'd like to compliment you on, like your ability to photograph a waterscape when your sky actually has obstructions in it, otherwise it'd be very boring, no? Now you don't have EXIF data posted, so I can't exactly compliment you on your technique and skill used to take this, but I'm also going to assume you post-processed this in some image editing program. Not only because your EXIF data isn't presented, which means this is in a format that's not in the standard .jpeg, but because of the seemingly added vignette, unless you used a gradient filter, but I'm not sure what you used, again. Anyways, that's all well done.

There's a few things, however, I feel could be improved. One is the horizon line; I notice it is DEAD CENTER. A lot of times when I bring my photographs for critique to my teachers, the first thing they say is that my horizon is dead center, or tilted. I don't have a good eye to say whether this is tilted or not, but I will say that this is almost exactly center, which splits the photo in half, and creates an unattractive feeling to the viewer. What I would recommend doing here, is cropping. You have a great image, but what you can do is crop out some empty space. Now, you don't want to make it claustrophobic, so I'd suggest what you do is crop just the empty space water at the bottom, because its just black anyways, right? Your little stray cloud reflection looks a bit odd there to be honest, seems like an obstruction to the view rather than helping, so I'd suggest cropping just above that, about where your ripples start. I took this into Photoshop CS4, and after this, your horizon is on the 3rd, and it makes a much smoother photo. That stray cloud then becomes a subject, rather than something that looks like you just stuck in there for shiggles.

Now another thing I notice about this photo is that it is just a little dark, maybe its your vignetting, but even the brightest part seems to be lacking contrast. Again, I took this into CS4, and clicked 'Auto Tone', to see what the program would suggest, and it brought this to my attention and it looks better a little brighter. Doing this also brings clarity and sharpness to your clouds, so that's good.

I'd like to compliment you, before I wrap up in explaining my ratings, in capturing a waterscape with such smooth water. In the United States, I always have problems finding such clear reflections on such beautiful water, so I applaud you in that.

Right then, on to my ratings.
I gave you a 4 in Vision, because like I just said, you saw the moment and you seized it, bravo.
Originality is a 2.5, because, let's face it, you're not the first person to get this. But no matter, because your Technique and Impact both make up for it, creating a slightly more unique and overall smooth photo as compared to the usual Waterscape photograph on deviantArt.

Thanks for giving me the chance to critique!

-Amanda

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