Sunset at Helsingør Photo

Photographer’s Note

If you skim through my gallery, you will see that I am attracted to strong (and sometimes surprising) colors created in nature.

This photo is of one of the most lovely sunsets I've ever witnessed. On the day it was shot, my wife and I bicycled from Lyngby (north of Copenhagen) along the eastern edge of Zealand, up to Helsingør at the northeast corner. It was a cool autumn day, overcast, with strong winds. Pretty typical of Denmark in the autumn, it seems.

Helsingør is best known as the setting for Shakespeare's Hamlet and it is the site of the Kronborg Castle, which is a main tourist attraction. A visit to the castle is definitely worthwhile and the town has some other attractive features, including a 15th century gothic cathedral, Sankt Olai Kirke.

On the day of the photo, the most spectacular aspects began after the sun dipped below the horizon. Gradually, the sky began to light up with vibrant shades of purple, orange, and rose, mainly reflected off of the clouds. At its peak, almost three quarters of the sky was brightly colored. I was particularly attracted to the way that the sky's rich colors played off of the surface of the water in the harbor, as shown here.

LeeLoo, jbemmels, jhm trouve(nt) cette note utile

Critiques | Translate

LeeLoo (5232) 2009-08-04 6:50

Dear William Nazaroff!
Very interesting cityscape.
Mysterious sunset.
Marvelous colors.
Good light and shadow.
TFS!

jbemmels (327) 2009-08-04 9:40

Hi William,

Another great sunset photo from your gallery! The colours are beautiful, as well as the way they reflect on the slightly choppy sea. If I were editing this photo I would be tempted to darken the buildings to the point where they just become a black outline. As you have not done this though, I think you must appreciate the feeling of being able to just barely make out details in the dim evening light. To each his own haha!

Cheers,
Jordan

jemaflor (39689) 2009-08-04 11:09

Hi William,
so beautiful colors for this sunset, very well captured, i like thes brightness reflections on water, well framed.

plimrn (19694) 2009-08-04 15:32

Hi William,
You did well framing the church steeple to one side and you managed the light well to capture great color. I would have cropped the sea to be about 1/3 of the picture to fit the rule of thirds this would give the best of your photo, the sky, more importance.

In reading your profile note, I think you plan to hone your eye with a camera you can easily carry is a good one. The pocket cameras have improved markedly since 2003 when my Nikon coolpix took a long time to record the picture and give no indication when it had dfone so. After trying to capture kangaroos with such a camera, I decided I needed a SLR for Alaska's eagles. However lugging big camera bags is much more suited to retirement than work-related travel Your portfolio shows clearly the value of having a small camrea handy.
HLJ, Pat

jhm (83193) 2009-08-05 4:15

Hello William,

I like the pink glow about your picture.
A nice panorama I like the profile of the dark village about the horizontal line of your picture, you play very well with light and dark contrasts.
Sharpness and clarity are pleasant for look at.
Nice composition and splendid picture for look at . TFS.

Best regards,
John.

Waylim (11093) 2009-08-06 0:14

Hi Bill,
Once more thanks for the indepth critique. In response to one of your note earlier. Yes, while critiquing other people's photos, I find I learn alot in the process of telling people why I like and why I didn't like it. It forces me to anylize it to give an honest critique, and through that I learn what works well and what need improvement.
Back to this photo, I like the expansive view of the skyline of the city. the chuch tower is well place. The division between the water and land is a bit too much in the middle. Since there is not object like a small boat on the water and the sky looks rather interesting with nice clouds formation. I would opt to pan up and get more of the sky. The other minor negative for me is the color intensity is a bit too strong. That's just me, we all have preference when it comes to colors saturation. I do like strong colors, but sometimes I do have to tone down the saturation even if the camera pick up strong colors. That is what Post processing is about, many time we punch up the saturation and there are times we tone it down a notch.
Have a good Thursday. I went out to shot some moon rise shot yesterday, It end up the sunset was more interesting. I will post may be a sunset tomorrow.
Way

cdmonson (2757) 2009-08-07 20:01

Hi William:

You can't beat a sunset like this. The colors in the sky are great, but I really love the vibrant colors reflecting on the water. Nice job.

Clark