As a personal view, I feel this is a little cluttered.

When I take this sort of shot I'd always try to simplify. In this image, the Natwest tower, gherkin and moving boat form the core of this image and I'd like to see them emphasised. I also feel that the Jetty and bridge on the right help lead the eye out of the image rather than in - remember we, mostly, read images left to right as we do text. The reflections of the lights will help provide interest in the lower part of the image anyway. As an aside be careful with bridges leading out of shot as we also tend to want to know where the bridge is going to!

To that end I've uploaded a crop that takes out the bridge and jetty to help focus on the towers and boat.

It's great that you have nailed the running water. However, as a personal opinion, I feel that it might have been better to have had a shallower depth of field and maybe to have held the colours back a little compared to the image you have presented. Mod added with a touch of blur, darkening and reduced saturation.

Record of buildings such as this can, as series have a great value that transcends the linmits of the single image which a site like this lives by. The key though is to get it right technically, and that's where this image falls down either singley or as part of a series. Look at work like Atget's, or for a more contemorary takethis to see how a mundane subject photographed well, technically, and in a series can be more than the sum of the single images.

I have to agree about the cropping, this begs for a letterbox crop, or alternatively the introduction of a vertical element. I guess that some might prefer a bit of foreground interest but I like the simplicity.

Letterbox crop added as a mod.

In answer to your question I'd say, yes it is too light. But there are other issues too.

I'd have to go the opposite way to the comment above, though, if there was more space between the rocks around 2/3 of the way up and the cliff it might work cropping there. I'd like to see a bit more at the top, cutting the buildings and trees with the edge of the frame is very unfortunate.

In spite of the care you've taken to set an exposure that gives blur in the water, the image seems casual because the composition isn't fully thought through. There are elements at the top and left which are cut off seemingly haphazardly. The foreground waqter has light swirl that leads the eye nicely up the first 2/3 of the image but the placement of the three rocks at this point breaks that 'route' through the image.

The location has potential though so, if you can, go back and try a few more viewpoints and exposure settings to see what you can make of it.

HTH, Barry

You can only get a rough idea from a quick conversion like this. I'd have to say that this version is a little lacking in contrast and that without the colour the sky could be a touch bland. A little darkening at the corners often helps with such images and all the more so with B&W conversions.

while the handrail on the left gives a good lead in I'd have to say that there's probably not enough going on on that side of the image, for me, so I'd probably crop it a little. I think I'd also have moved forwards a little as the rails on the right act as a psychological barrier to the eye moving into the picture, to some extent countering the strong lead in on the left.

I'd also have been inclined to shoot an image like this in RAW and process with a daytlight white balance. I suspect it would give a cooler feel to the image which may have better reflected the sort of light this seems to have been taken in.

Strange one this, I'd never have pegged it as a mcfade. I think you've almost lost what I see as the most interesting aspect of this image, the relationship between the girl and the (Henry Moore?) sculpture. I also find the composition a bit odd with respect to the windows on the left and the thin sliver of lit wall on the right.