Eilean Donald castle

I like the colours in the foreground but think I would like the castle to be in focus.

ps it's eilean donan :)
 
I hate to be unkind but there's not much you an do to save this one.

I'd have liked to have seen the castle in Focus, its the subject of the image. The lights all wrong. Compositionally though, its pleasing enough and in softer lighting conditions could really be something if it was all in focus. Shame really.
 
ST4 said:
I hate to be unkind but there's not much you an do to save this one.

I'd have liked to have seen the castle in Focus, its the subject of the image. The lights all wrong. Compositionally though, its pleasing enough and in softer lighting conditions could really be something if it was all in focus. Shame really.
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Steve
I have another picture from the same location with the castle in focus but I like to think "out of the box" that's why I posted this one and it's the one that I prefer
Thanks for the comments though
 
I'm not a fan of the OOF castle simply because what I presume is the subject (the boat shaped flowerbed) isn't sufficiently interesting - I'd rather be looking at the castle. The blown sky certainly doesn't help, but that's not the biggie for me.

The idea, though, I do like. It's obviously a massively "overshot" scene, so taking the viewpoint away from the castle itself is amusing and potentially far more interesting. Perhaps someone will do a lego castle-building scene with a similar composition, but focus on the lego castle where the plantbed is with ED in the background, OOF? That'd make me smile :) Sorry, I've just completely redesigned your photo! :oops: :$
 
ndwgolf said:
Steve
I have another picture from the same location with the castle in focus but I like to think "out of the box" that's why I posted this one and it's the one that I prefer
Thanks for the comments though
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If the two shots are taken on a tripod you could try focus blending to get a composite with everything in focus.
 
Brian G said:
If the two shots are taken on a tripod you could try focus blending to get a composite with everything in focus.
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Not if your lens exhibits focus breathing (I mean not very easily...). Most zooms and even my macro prime suffer from this when going from one extreme to another. Maybe zeiss is perfect, well cinema primes are perfect for sure.
 
daugirdas said:
sky is certainly blown unless you overexposed a lot in post? However focus (or lack of it) puts the first nail in.
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Sorry but you are missing the point. I personally didn't want the castle in focus thats the whole point of shooting it at f2.8 so that the background was blur
Below is the out of camera picture WITHOUT the blown sky.
View attachment 19296
 
It looks as though you got the result you were after, but there is no real point of interest.
 
I agree with the consensus here
The castle is the focal point here with it being out of focus just makes your eye hunt around the image always settling on the boat which just doesn't have enough to hold your interest, nice try but no cigar in this case!
 
Have to agree with what's already been said.

Nothing wrong with the idea of having the foreground in focus and the castle out of focus but with such an iconic subject in the background the foreground has to worthy of top billing.

Focus seems to be on the gassy plant on the left which isn't particularly interesting and is chopped off by the frame.

The boat could have been a stronger focal point however that's also chopped and the boat itself extends beyond the depth of focus.

As I said - nothing wrong with the idea but my eye instantly skips the foreground as its drawn to the out of focus background.
 
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Either way, like it or not. It's good to experiment with composition. Not everyone wants the exact same photo that everyone else has. Although I do agree with the consensus that it would be better with a better DOF. The boat is a good foreground, but as it is, just doesn't hold enough interest on it's own. My eye wants to see the castle more crisply, or maybe less focused... I'm not sure. I also think that you have placed the boat to close the bottom edge, it almost feels cut off, and needs some breathing space.
 
If you had wanted to use this composition to say something, you could have shot some rubbish / discarded cans etc. in place of the flowerbed. Maybe even a discarded ticket... at least that would have said something and the OOF castle would have had a lot more meaning and context. I guess the thing we're all struggling with is "why?"... Why is the castle OOF - it just seems a choice you've made, rather than to tell a story or portray something specific.

Now, there's nothing wrong with that - not all photos have to be deep & meaningful, but at least some internal justification within the image for the photographic choice would have made it very hard for anyone to argue with why you'd done what you did (sorry that grammar is shocking!)

I have to say, I do like your thinking... but perhaps it just needs completion and something else to lift the image?
 
Like I have already said it was planned this way I also have it in focus but haven't had time to work on it..........
 
Neil,
I really like the idea of trying to use an almost iconic subject as a background but it doesn't seem to quite work as shown here. Maybe you could try cropping this in, discarding the other container on the RHS, which would then bring the focus onto the boat/plants but still give the castle/mountains as an interesting backdrop?
 
Would there be a chance of correcting the thread title (to the proper "Eilean Donan")? "Eilean Donald" just sounds so wrong....!
 
I like the idea, but to me it seems that the light is wrong (too harsh) and as the focal point, the boat is sort of cut in half with the end of the plant is also missing and the height of the plant sort of competing with the mountains behind. Also the boat on the right hand side being a little bit distracting. I like the second version without the blown sky better and would love to see the photo again perhaps with a bit more space around the boat and in better light.
 
Nguss said:
I like the idea, but to me it seems that the light is wrong (too harsh) and as the focal point, the boat is sort of cut in half with the end of the plant is also missing and the height of the plant sort of competing with the mountains behind. Also the boat on the right hand side being a little bit distracting. I like the second version without the blown sky better and would love to see the photo again perhaps with a bit more space around the boat and in better light.
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I am going back in 2016......if they'le let me in....fingers crossed its sunny
 
daugirdas said:
Not if your lens exhibits focus breathing (I mean not very easily...). Most zooms and even my macro prime suffer from this when going from one extreme to another. Maybe zeiss is perfect, well cinema primes are perfect for sure.
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I did say "try" it.
I've had success in the past combining a foreground and background image to give a deep depth of field.
 
Brian G said:
I did say "try" it.
I've had success in the past combining a foreground and background image to give a deep depth of field.
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I have done too, but I find that in many cases I can't get perfect overlap with 24-70 and particularly 70-200; the focal length changes somewhat, although it may be still possible to blend things particularly if there is some featureless separation such as sea...

for example this is a 200mm landscape wide-angle style...
 
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I think the one I tried was using either the wide end of the Canon 24-105 or else the 17-40.
Not sure if I kept it since I took it purely as an experiment to try out the technique.
 
I appreciate the idea of this shot, but actually prefer the shot out of camera. In the first shot you appear to have increased the contrast on the castle and it competes with the boat. Kind of defeats the objective I think
 
For me, I like the idea and certainly do not think that the castle has to be in focus. We all still know what it is, it still hints at being that castle which is enough as long as the rest of the image is well thought out. I agree the lighting is a bit harsh but if we all waited for perfect conditions we would take 5 photos a year.

As mentioned, I think the thing that lets the image down is the composition, particularly of the in focus parts. Positioning and taking care not to clip object is all that's needed. However, I do like the idea and don't be put off to try it more.
 
Krusty said:
For me, I like the idea and certainly do not think that the castle has to be in focus. We all still know what it is, it still hints at being that castle which is enough as long as the rest of the image is well thought out. I agree the lighting is a bit harsh but if we all waited for perfect conditions we would take 5 photos a year.

As mentioned, I think the thing that lets the image down is the composition, particularly of the in focus parts. Positioning and taking care not to clip object is all that's needed. However, I do like the idea and don't be put off to try it more.
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Thanks Craig............thank god there is is more than one photographer on this forum that can think out of the box and try new stuff, instead of copying the norm...........boooooooooring
 
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