Does this work for you?

A shot from a shoot last weekend near Rye. These are some of the decaying groynes at the Petts Level beach in East Sussex, taken looking almost in to the sun with a 10 stop ND filter. I wanted to get the effect of a silhouette combined with a long(ish) exposure. I think that something like a 14-16 stop filter would have been better, and I think that the sky needs some more work to get more strength into the clouds. A 6 sec exposure at f22 on a HD DA 55-300 at 55mm and K-5iis. Processed using PS Elements & convered to B&W using Silver Exfex Pro.

Is it worth working on?

Phil

Mhm....I can see a potential in this shot, but to be honest, don't think it works too well as is. The exposure is not long enough to result in smoothness across the
board. It's very uneven. Also, not sure what the focus point was supposed to be on? Generally love pictures taken straight into the sun but from my own experience, it can be a lottery when it comes to outcome Not always as intended. Here it seem all the interesting light is to the left of the subject. If you get a chance, I'd re-shoot. The sky did not help you here - it seems dull but not because it is subtle. Trying to bring it out more, might only result in an 'artificial' look in my opinion. However, I have seen a post processing wizz in action and I do realize there are talented people out there that can make a stunning photograph from an average capture. So don't think I can honestly say, you should quit.

One thing I find myself, it's often worth working on the not necessarily perfect shots. They teach you way more about post processing, than the great ones

It does and it doesn't work for me. I'm impressed by how little flare there is with a 10stop ND into the sun though!

It is the sort of thing I might well have tried had I been there myself. However as Mag07 asks; 'what is the focus point was supposed to be on?' It might work better if this were done with the sun light across the sea nearer to the left groyne and not half missing off the frame?

As far as longer exposure is concerned, I wonder if you could try the multi-exposure feature with the exposure averaging feature turned on. That way you could take 9 exposures at 6 seconds each one after the other. Shooting continuously that way should not show any significant wave differences between frames.

That's just by twopence worth!