So the readers have spoken! The majority, actually all of those who responded, liked photo # 2 better than photo # 1. I also received a few good suggestions about the purple color cast in the skies and the yellow color cast on the rocks so I went ahead and fixed that in the final version so that they looked more natural. Oh and you’ll also notice that the colors are now deeper than they were before!

So here it is, the final version of “A California Sunset”. Enjoy!

So which photo do you prefer? I can’t seem to make up my mind about which one of the two photos below that I like better so I’m going to put this as a vote to you, the readers. Both of these photos were taken this evening actually, but at different times. The main difference between the two photos is that the photo on the left, which I shall now refer to as photo # 1, was taken about 5 minutes before photo # 2 on the right.

The difference in colors that you see between the two photos is because of the setting sun and this time frame difference. This gave photo # 2 a more saturated and vivid look with it’s colors whereas photo # 1 has a more pastel/water color look to it. I should also mention that the foreground in photo # 2 is brighter and has more detail compared to photo # 1 because someone had setup an automatic flood light in their back yard that acted as a really good fill light for the foreground in photo # 2. You might also notice that the framing is slightly different as I had zoomed in a bit more in photo # 2 while I was trying different compositions.

Personally I like them both equally; however I can only pick one for my upcoming press photo book and will most likely only pick one out of the two to frame and place on the market for sale. So which do you prefer?