Hi Henry! How awesome to have a front row seat. I like that there is three dark sailboats rather than an even number. I would consider opening up the shadows by selecting just the sailboats. In composition an odd number is always more interesting than an even number. For me, I actually prefer the original, especially the dark foreboding sky. In my opinion, original scene has more drama than the edited version. The sky is a bit flat in the edited version. Do you use PS or LR? You can make a selection of the boats and play around a bit with the shadow and exposure sliders. There are many options in these software applications to address sharpness, structure, vignetting and much more. Another important rule of composition is to never place the horizon in the center of a composition (of course there is always exception). A low or high horizon can increase impact and make it more interesting. If you are going to include the foreground, then you want to give the viewer a "place to stand." Here the viewer is floating and we don't get the sense of place. Think about interesting perspectives such as laying down on the ground and then photographing your subject. I suggest trying different perspectives when composing an image. It is good to try and break away from the ordinary perspective of photographing from eye level. Personally, if the foreground is distracting and doesn't add to the overall composition, I would omit it and photograph the scene from the water's edge, or use a longer lens and zoom in. I did a quick edit of this image and changed it to a vertical, added structure to the sky, a little vignetting and cropped out any distracting features. I think it still conveys a sense of expansiveness while focusing only on the main subjects. What do you think?  
Posted: 06/04/2021 14:29:30