in this video I'm going to show you the essential elements of blue our landscape
photography so that your blue our photos can become even better my name is Tim
shields I'm a landscape photographer and once a week in our Facebook group which
is called Tim's photos calm I hold a photo challenge and the photo challenge
for this week was for blue our photos what the blue hour is is that time in
the evening after the Sun sets but before the sky becomes completely dark
it's that time when there's still some color in the sky and this photo
challenge I was looking for photos that were taken in the evening blue hour or
the early morning blue hour we had over 150 photos that were submitted they were
outstanding I'm going to show you quickly some of the photos that were
submitted then I'm going to show you the top photos and give a little bit of
constructive criticism on them and then I'm going to show you the winning photo
of this photo challenge let's get started
I'm just going to quickly roll through some of the photos that were submitted
this one here outstanding by Richard Miller this one from Suzanne LaCorte
Slee very nice this one from GERD clinco it's Peter Lee from Santorini Greece Wow
take me to this place I love this photo alan stut great one All Breed ah very
nice from Newfoundland Canada Bjorn Carlson another beautiful blue our photo
Nelson Rudy ACK very nice wheat field Brian hog abloom very nice shoreline
with bridge leaf in bald Skog very nice waterfall with long exposure
Sheryl wodsworth beautiful photo here maybe a little too dark but that's the
look that she was going for very nice Larry Medoff beautiful layer upon layer
upon layer love these colors love the light Libya Cardenas this one taken from
an airplane I love the texture in the clouds and
the sky Bilhah Sakai wish this one was a bigger photo so that we could really see
it but it's gorgeous it's from Surfers Paradise Australia Phil conforte nice
leading line as well as balance and symmetry here Serge Corolla another nice
one from him foreground middle ground background he's got a teal and orange
sky going on looks good Noel Benidorm great balance and symmetry
here beautiful blue our sky Marc Altmire beautiful sky as well this one from
David Cutler this is a wow this this just looks great no blown out highlights
great reflections great sky great everything really nice
Steve McArthur foreground middle ground background blue sky looks very nice
Donald pash another nice one from Donald I think it's the Oregon coast or Seal
Rock Beach Oregon beautiful Matt link from the Brandenburg Gate in Germany
very nice sky going on here Stan Wasielewski just a gorgeous photo
beautiful reflections beautiful sky beautiful color in the sky so much
texture so much going on here that's good Reno Ditullio beautiful balance and
symmetry reflections leading line I really like this photo this one here
from Stan Wasielewski this one just makes me smile it makes me laugh here's
just this little frog crawling up a window doing what frogs do gorgeous
photo I love it Roger blends oh we've seen this one before but great blue our
photo Tom de vanch Seattle skyline very nice Alan Scott
nice sky Lea Jorgensen very nice bridge with foreground hung Lam Leonard
Schekman leading line Jan gallon this one is a
really nice photo Jan I really wish you would have submitted a larger photo on
this one we've got a bride and groom with a reflection on a pond right here
and this is a very creative setup shot it it is very well done
Roger Kelly the New York skyline reflections blew our sky I really like
this photo Raj Manickam wow this looks like it is like the title screen for the
Netflix series house of cards this is a really nice looking photo I love the
balance and symmetry the contrast between blue sky and the lit up building
I it's a very impressive shot Roger Kelly very nice photo but I need to move
on Chantel wanton very nice but I need to move on and now I'm going to show you
the top photos this one from Tim Ashcraft absolutely gorgeous sky texture
color brightness in the sky we've got a stadium here I would say that maybe the
city scape which is the mid ground and these trees which are the foreground
could use a little bit of a brightening up but this is a fantastic photo
something to be proud of I I like it this one from Tim point of in the
Seattle skyline this is a great blue hour photo we've got reflections coming
off the buildings maybe it could be enhanced by introducing some magenta
using the tone curve but other than that very nice photo
this one from leaf ink vald scope it's Norway and winter scene foreground
middle ground background beautiful color in the sky I possibly would have
darkened that sky just a little bit but I'm not being critical on this one this
is a beautiful photo this one from Tommy Anna Lee Larson and this is a really
nice photo he extended the shutter speed to get movement in the clouds up here
it was probably 30 seconds 60 seconds 120 seconds I don't know but nice photo
he does say that it was at 4 o'clock in the afternoon so actually technically
this is not a blue hour photo but what I like about it is the leading lines that
are going up in the field and this really nice foreground element next one
is from Reno Ditullio and I love this photo I think it's
absolutely fantastic he specifically went to this location to get this shot
he was there at the blue hour so this is the time when the sky is just becoming
darker than the man-made lights on the signs and this is the timing that you
want to take a blue hour cityscape type of photo when the sky has just slightly
become darker than the city lights I like the composition of it the car makes
an interesting it's just it's like the cover of a book it this should be used
for something commercial I just don't know what it's from Knoll Benidorm and I
love this photo if this is a real piece of art I wish Knoll that you had
submitted this in a larger format so that we could see it better but the
colors of blue rating radiating into the pinks and the orange and yellow of the
sky combined with the flat ocean you
extended the shutter speed you've got some rocks in the foreground
absolutely gorgeous photo I I really like this Knoll well done this one is
from Nick T and here's another one I love
it is Melbourne Australia in order to improve on this one I would have liked
to have seen the sky a little bit darker than it is I find the sky to be quite
bright in comparison to the city lights maybe a little bit more contrast but
it's a beautiful photo reflections lines you've got some balance going on with a
big chunk of buildings here on the Left I call this anchor left and anchor right
over here with this chunk of buildings great photo nothing wrong with this at
all this one is from Tommy
and only Larson and Wow Tommy this is this is just so good the texture of the
sky the movement of the sky the sky actually has leading lines that lead
toward the sunset spot it's an interesting foreground there's
reflections to improve upon this I would think that you should be able to bring
out more of the reflection and color on the water right here in this area and
even right here and it would take some dodging and burning in Photoshop or
using the brushes in Lightroom but whatever the case this is a fantastic
photo and I love it this one is from Wendy Klein and this is a beautiful
minimalist photo of this boat in the water beautiful sky beautiful reflection
it leads the eye from the front to the back and I really like the minimalist
composition of this and now we get to the winning photo for this week's photo
challenge for blue our photography and this one goes to a photographer who I
think has improved in his photography so much over the past six eight weeks and
it's Calogero Kochi dimino and Calogero I've seen your photography over the past
two months I think and it has improved 5000 percent since you first started
submitting photos you've won this photo challenge this is a fantastic photo it
is Osaka Japan you've got a leading line going down the middle you have balance
and symmetry with balance on the left balance on the light blue our sky
perfect timing where the sky is just darker than all of the city lights so it
really makes the city lights pop you've got something interesting in the
foreground here a boat and because you use their slow shutter speed you've got
the blur the movement of the boat there's so much goodness to this photo
so much going on here and I say well done Kelly
this is a well-deserved win so Calogero wins my set of signature landscape
profiles he wins the entire collection these profiles will help you to edit
your photos faster and easier than ever before and you can get them at Tim's
photos com if you don't want to buy the full collection for $27 you can get a
sample set for free at Tim's photos so moving forward to the next photo
challenge I've thought about this a lot and we already have done photo
challenges for reflections and it's always always composition its
reflections we've done balance and symmetry we've done leading lines we've
done blue our and I'm forgetting another couple that we've done framing we've
done framing as well it's always about composition and that's because every
winning photo is always about composition photos win competitions or
photos get printed and put up on the walls of galleries because of the
composition so we're going to work on composition one more time and for the
next photo challenge it is going to be minimalist and just take a look back at
Wendy's photo here this is a minimalist photo
it's simple there is a minimal number of elements within this composition really
there's only one thing it's the boat and that's what we're going to go for this
time now let me show you something from my website here's my website and I'm
under the cityscapes tab these are all cityscapes and these are not minimalist
these are the opposite of minimalist these are busy busy photos there's so
much going on take a look at this one here this one of Dubai this is not
minimalist and we don't want to see this what we do want to see is like this one
here that I shot in the Palouse region of Washington this is a minimalist
composition there's really just one main element now if you go into Google and
you search for minimalist photography and then you search for images take a
look at the types of images that are coming
they are simple simple images like like this one here just a simple one subject
type of composition this one here one main subject in the composition let's
just take a look at another one this curved line here I love this curved line
with it happens to have a person in it but that curved line
it's a minimalist composition just not a lot going on and the eye of the viewer
should be drawn towards what you want the main subject to be now this is a
difficult competition here it's not easy to go out there and find minimalist
compositions but we're looking for minimalist compositions in landscapes
and cityscapes or any other type of outdoor photography if you have a person
in your shot that's okay but we're not looking for primarily portraits of
people's faces we're looking for the the outdoor types of shots like these ones
that I'm showing you here so that is it if you want to submit your photos for
this week's photo challenge for the minimalist compositions join the
Facebook group which is called Tim's photos Academy create a post and make
sure you tag your photos with hashtag Tim's photos 1:07 and that way I will be
able to sort the photos when the competition closes thanks so much good
luck thank you to everybody who submitted your photos they were all
fantastic I had such a difficult time narrowing down the field and really the
whole thing the reason why I hold these photo challenges it's not about winning
the photo challenge it's about learning and learning from everyone else's photos
in order to improve your photography thanks so much see you in the Facebook
group and please do submit your photos see ya