Secret Valley Sunrise, Castleton

Bill19

Bill19

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Here's a set of shots I took last week on a post-uni exams trip to the Secret valley, just to the south of Castleton, in the Peak District. I was treated to a nice sunrise, which made the ridiculous 3:20am alarm worth it! Critique welcome! (Nikon D7100, wide angle shots with Nikon 10-24)

(Edit: see posts below for some re-edits)

1.
The Secret Valley, Castleton by Billy Clapham, on Flickr

2. That's Peveril castle on top of the valley side
Castle Sunrise by Billy Clapham, on Flickr

3. I think my personal favourite from the trip
A Secret Sunrise by Billy Clapham, on Flickr

4. This ones a 3 shot veritcal panorama with a 70-300mm
Dawn Pathway by Billy Clapham, on Flickr

5. Another with the telephoto
Steep Pastures by Billy Clapham, on Flickr

6.
Valley Drama by Billy Clapham, on Flickr

Thanks for looking!

Bill
 
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Ally good shots there Bill - lovely part of the country and I have it on my list to go back there soon to get something similar. (My previous attempts were at the wrong time of the year to align the sun)
 
03:20hrs start and sorry if i've missed the boat, but these imgaes come across as more like Midday light to me, so no doubt you where up at that hour to get their for middayish?, have been up for many a sunrise but these are on planet earth I take it?
 
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Here's a re-edit of number 3, with less shadow lifting, and generally less constrast work done, thoughts?

18161041393_c91421cc72_b.jpg
 
love no5 a lot .
I know what you mean with the shadows its difficult to remember what it looked like when you're sat in front of a screen.
 
Lovely scenes and compositions, but the PP is extremely overdone, even in the edits.
Shame....I was brought up in these parts and am still fond of seeing them in their natural beauty.
 
viv1969 said:
Lovely scenes and compositions, but the PP is extremely overdone, even in the edits.
Shame....I was brought up in these parts and am still fond of seeing them in their natural beauty.
Click to expand...
Thanks for the feedback, can I ask what exactly it is about the pp which is overdone? The brightness of the shadows still or something else? The shot is made by combining two exposures, one of the land and one of the sky, which may be what's making it look ott, but I've looked at them so much now I'm struggling to really tell what does look natural!
 
Thats the trouble with pp isn't it, so easy to lose the essence that was there originally.

Lovely shots of a lovely place that have given me itchy feet, regardless.

Steve.
 
Of all of the shots, 5 is my favourite but agree that the PP is very well overcooked on almost all of the shots, making the images appear very unnatural.
 
Cheers guys. Right here's number 3 again.... this time I have just merged the two exposures, I did nothing to the RAW file of the land and increased exposure and decreased highlights a bit on the sky exposure to show more of the clouds but not completely blow out the sun (increased exposure + decreased highlights), other than that all I have done is sharpened..... Thoughts? What further processing would you do to this photo? Feel free to download it and have a go!
18782529726_0d4b2c56af_b.jpg
 
Even with the re-edit of number two you've produced what your brain has corrected to want to see when you were at the scene. In reality, there were a lot more blacks/silhouettes. Refer back to number 5 and you're closer to what there in reality.

The brain is a phenomenal in being able to correcting vision to what is important to living/surviving. In other words, your brain has lifted the shadows. What you've done is reproduced the brain's activity not the instance(s) the eye saw.

A little bit of 'shadow lifting' is fine in my book but to the extent that it appears unnatural. However, that's the landscape purist in me!

Top marks for getting up that early for a shot like this - perhaps just tone down the post-processing enthusiasm :)
 
I'd love to have a crack at it.
But from the original image (s), not a merged image.
I'm on my phone again now but could have a play tomorrow :)

In terms of what doesn't look right; given that the sun has only just broken the horizon, the scene is just too bright. ..the colours too vibrant.
Whilst the sun would indeed play nicely on the foreground tree, the mid ground would still be largely in much deeper shadow, as can be seen by the sun catching the hillside on the left hand side.

Harshness isn't my aim here...I think the images have great potential if the processing were a smidge more...sensitive :)
 
TheAndyA said:
Hi Billy,

This is with a very quick curves adjustment, just as an idea to start with. Out of interest, is your screen calibrated?
Click to expand...
Thanks that looks good on my screen, and no I've never properly calibrated my screen.

chuckles said:
Even with the re-edit of number two you've produced what your brain has corrected to want to see when you were at the scene. In reality, there were a lot more blacks/silhouettes. Refer back to number 5 and you're closer to what there in reality.

The brain is a phenomenal in being able to correcting vision to what is important to living/surviving. In other words, your brain has lifted the shadows. What you've done is reproduced the brain's activity not the instance(s) the eye saw.

A little bit of 'shadow lifting' is fine in my book but to the extent that it appears unnatural. However, that's the landscape purist in me!

Top marks for getting up that early for a shot like this - perhaps just tone down the post-processing enthusiasm :)
Click to expand...
You know I think you could be right! Damn my inferior human vision.... I guess I remember being able to see detail in the shadowy side of the valley, so I wanted to bring it out in the shots to improve the composition and sense of balance in the image.

viv1969 said:
I'd love to have a crack at it.
But from the original image (s), not a merged image.
I'm on my phone again now but could have a play tomorrow :)

In terms of what doesn't look right; given that the sun has only just broken the horizon, the scene is just too bright. ..the colours too vibrant.
Whilst the sun would indeed play nicely on the foreground tree, the mid ground would still be largely in much deeper shadow, as can be seen by the sun catching the hillside on the left hand side.

Harshness isn't my aim here...I think the images have great potential if the processing were a smidge more...sensitive :)
Click to expand...
Thanks Ruth, and no worries, I just want to learn and improve! Especially since I was initially quite happy with these shots... though now I've been re-tinkering, the original edits do make my eyes bleed a little....
Heres the two images used for the last shot, nothing done to the first (my hands stuck over the sun to get rid of flare), and the again I've just brightened the second in RAW a bit as it was on the under-exposed side
https://farm6.staticflickr.com/5450/18188817484_6a94610e45_b.jpg
https://farm6.staticflickr.com/5550/18623711600_c823d13570_b.jpg

might have another go myself as well in a mo....
 
Tbh Bill...that second image link...that only needs the slightest of tweaks mate!
 
I find 4 the best as it looks the most natural and I like the composition.

1-3 I'm sure will be solved by new PP, as I like the rest of it in terms of composition and the sunburst etc.
 
Took a (very) quick run at it.....
If you want it taken down just let me know :)


Not my pic by viv1969 on Talk Photography
 
I'm with most of the other posters here.

I'm impressed that you were able to visualise what would be possible at this location by combining different exposures. The risk with processing is that it is possible to get results which look VERY attractive to the eye but in reality would have been impossible.

No 5 is fabulous but even this one seems to be a little over-contrasty to my eye.
 
Billy... I realise reading back what I nearly typed...that I missed a few words.

I also want to apologise for seeming so patronising. Wasn't my plan just putting my "rationalising everything" head on. So, sorry... still think they're good though. I shall have to go one day - and do the Sunset from the other end of the Valley (I hate mornings)
 
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