Elgol sunrise

Steelo

Steelo

Messages
2,654
Name
Martin
Edit My Images
No
A sunrise at Elgol before we drove up and got on the ferry to Harris and lewis for the week. A great start to a great trip. It's always nice to go and get something a wee bit different from a well shot location.

Elgol sunrise by Martin Steele, on Flickr
 
Love the sky and sea; the way the sky is expansive and dark at the top to hold the eye in really works. So I see the image differently from Steve. Also, unlike Steve, I'd slightly desaturate the seaweed so it keeps the nice diagonal but is less distracting. We all see these things differently.....
 
JohnFar said:
I'd slightly desaturate the seaweed so it keeps the nice diagonal but is less distracting. We all see these things differently.....
Click to expand...
:plus1: they look ever so slightly too saturated in my opinion, almost radioactive and this makes them the brightest part of the image.
The sky, especially a dramatic sunset such as that one, should always be the brightest part of an image. Just like you'd never find a reflection on water brighter than the sky itself, you wouldn't find a rock brighter than the sky also.
It's all subjective ofcourse, lovely image:)
 
Thanks guys....

Interesting point on the saturation on the seaweed, as the saturation/vibrance hasn't been touched whatsoever, the seaweed really was that bright and vibrant, it's what drew me to it in the first instance. I understand where you're coming from, because it is exceptionally green, but it was like that, so...I guess sometimes you just have to be there to see how it was.

@SFTPhotography I did initially go for a 4x5, but felt it was slightly off balance for me, which is strange as most of my stuff gets cropped to a 4x5 in portrait.
 
Steelo said:
Thanks guys....


@SFTPhotography I did initially go for a 4x5, but felt it was slightly off balance for me, which is strange as most of my stuff gets cropped to a 4x5 in portrait.
Click to expand...

I do see why you didn't - that big cloud seems a shame to crop.

The luminsity/saturation/vibrance looks pretty much fine on the grees - one other thing - I'd be curious to see just how strong a grad you used though and where you placed it as the "litchen" on the far bottom rock looks very bright and the top of Sgurr na Stri pretty dark. On closer inspection that catches my eye a bit.

I wonder if a less strong grad might have worked better - with a slightly shorter exposure so the bottom part wasn't lightened as much and the top part exposed pretty much as is.
 
SFTPhotography said:
I do see why you didn't - that big cloud seems a shame to crop.

The luminsity/saturation/vibrance looks pretty much fine on the grees - one other thing - I'd be curious to see just how strong a grad you used though and where you placed it as the "litchen" on the far bottom rock looks very bright and the top of Sgurr na Stri pretty dark. On closer inspection that catches my eye a bit.

I wonder if a less strong grad might have worked better - with a slightly shorter exposure so the bottom part wasn't lightened as much and the top part exposed pretty much as is.
Click to expand...

0.9 soft grad, placed perfectly....I do know how to use filters ;) Not sure which rock you talk about? Sgurr na Stri does indeed look very dark, at this size, the joy of the light flooding in behind a dark mountain at sunrise I guess and viewing it pretty small.


Stuart Mc said:
Lovely image Martin - can well believe the seaweed is that green though pulling them back a hair might work as they do hit you in the face a bit. Great shot though
Click to expand...

Cheers Stuart. I could have pulled it back a bit for sure, but initial impact told me not to. :)
 
SFTPhotography said:
I love the vibrant greens on the rocks and the conditions look epic.

I do however think the image would have more impact cropped to a fatter aspect ratio taking some off the sky
Click to expand...

:agree:

these upright "portraits" in some cases distort the normal eye movement as it moves with pleasure across the landscape
reading this type of shot is difficult as the eye normally moves left to right
cropping is the only answer and one must make the choice...near or far...is the subject
its really two photographs and really relies on too deep depth of field, relying on a special focal lens
cheers
geof
 
Steelo said:
Not sure which rock you talk about? Sgurr na Stri does indeed look very dark, at this size, the joy of the light flooding in behind a dark mountain at sunrise I guess and viewing it pretty small.

.
Click to expand...

Very bottom left corner - it's cut off but such is the beach there is no other way. The very small bit is probablly the crux of it - the full res will have the detail and tonality that gets lost going from nice big 36 (or in your case 42) million pixels down to just a few. Downsizing can kill pictures.
 
SFTPhotography said:
Very bottom left corner - it's cut off but such is the beach there is no other way. The very small bit is probablly the crux of it - the full res will have the detail and tonality that gets lost going from nice big 36 (or in your case 42) million pixels down to just a few. Downsizing can kill pictures.
Click to expand...

I see what you're saying about the rocks at the bottom, however, just looking at the camera jpeg of that image, I think an overall lift in exposure has made that a tad bright, but the lichen is much whiter on those two foreground rocks than the rest of the scene, so that exposure lift has made it look even more so.

mrtoad said:
:agree:

these upright "portraits" in some cases distort the normal eye movement as it moves with pleasure across the landscape
reading this type of shot is difficult as the eye normally moves left to right
cropping is the only answer and one must make the choice...near or far...is the subject
its really two photographs and really relies on too deep depth of field, relying on a special focal lens
cheers
geof
Click to expand...

Thanks Geof, I guess we all interpret scenes differently. As I said in response to Steve in the first reply, I do normally crop any portrait oriented image to a 4x5, however decided not to in this one as it felt slightly out of balance.
 
Different is good in my eyes Martin. Refreshing to see something different from a well know location. Looks like it was fabulous start to the day and those clouds are amazing. You didn't by any chance get a long lens shot of the mountains and the clouds, did you :naughty: ?
 
Paul Cronin said:
Different is good in my eyes Martin. Refreshing to see something different from a well know location. Looks like it was fabulous start to the day and those clouds are amazing. You didn't by any chance get a long lens shot of the mountains and the clouds, did you :naughty: ?
Click to expand...

Thanks Paul. Unfortunately not. I literally fired off 5 frames and the light had vanished again. It came and left so quickly, I was glad I got walked right round to here in time for it and found the green rocks :)
 
SFTPhotography said:
I love the vibrant greens on the rocks and the conditions look epic.

I do however think the image would have more impact cropped to a fatter aspect ratio taking some off the sky
Click to expand...

Agreed. It's an absolutely lovely image but I personally think all that sky and clouds puts it out of balance. When I view it on my mobile phone and scroll the page down so I lose some of the sky, closer to a 4x5 ratio, I honestly think it's a much stronger, balanced image. But either way, it's a lovely piece of work. Well captured!
 
welly said:
Agreed. It's an absolutely lovely image but I personally think all that sky and clouds puts it out of balance. When I view it on my mobile phone and scroll the page down so I lose some of the sky, closer to a 4x5 ratio, I honestly think it's a much stronger, balanced image. But either way, it's a lovely piece of work. Well captured!
Click to expand...

Thanks Alastair. I'll maybe have a look at another image from here that was composed slightly differently and have a look at different crops :)
 
Just awesome, love the lenticular clouds around the Cullin. The saturation point, of both the green rocks and blue sky is splitting hairs and personal taste. Forgetting accuracy, I personally would make the bottom left rock slightly darker in the whites so it is not a distraction, also minor.
 
Really like this one. For me the journey of the eyes on alot of landscapes starts from the foreground (Bottom) and move up.
In this case the eyes move up with the green moss to the shore line and then toward the sunset.
 
Im in the stunning image category and well done!!!!... but id just tone down the saturation in the greens a little! Inspirational image the light is perfect.
 
Yep I'm a fan of this style of photograph. But the glow of the green is keeping my eye from moving up the scene.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top