Evening Skies - Edits Added, C&C welcome!

horrocks

horrocks

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Toby
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Spent half an hour in the park at Blake Hall last evening experimenting. These are the first shots I have taken as RAW files, and together with Adobe Bridge and CS4, I am smitten. There is so much more you can do.

All single shots, processed in Bridge to 3, 4 or 5 EVs, and recombined in Dynamic Photo for a very low HDR treatment, then worked on for shadows, highlights, levels and sharpness in CS4.

1. Sunset without

DSC_7590HDRB.jpg


2. Sunset with

DSC_7594HDRB.jpg


2. Sunset with, Alt Edit

DSC_7594HDR2-1.jpg


3. Back to the sunset, taken 10 mins prior to the other two

DSC_7600HDRB.jpg


3. Alt Edit

DSC_7600HDR2.jpg


Very difficult to get the horses to cooperate when you only have minutes, so always a degree of opportunism and chance.
 
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Love #1. Not sure about the grass in #2 as HDR always seems to do wierd things to this kind of grass. I love the sky though.
 
Ah the good old Essex skies! What a shame you couldn't get closer to the horse! Sorry but after the first two No.3 is a bit tame.
 
The sky in #1 is fab, but to my eyes, the foreground needs to either be a bit darker (sillhouette style) or lighter, it sits a bit uncomfortably in the middle at them moment.

Really like #2. A slight crop might help increase the size of the horse and move it onto a third though. Love the bit of flare you've got from the sun, really adds something to the shot.

#3 is a bit odd, it's not really a sunset shot, and the halls a bit small for it to be a shot of that. I think I know what you were trying though, I had similar problems with my shots of Chatsworth house: The building looks great as you see it, but when you get home and check the photo, it just looks a bit lost in it's surroundings.

Also, they could all use a tiny bit more contrast.

Nice set though, and a good use of HDR, subtley executed (y)
 
Thanks indeed for the excellent points you have raised Jim. On looking back on #1, I fully agree about the foreground - it has been playing on me. I originally posted it a little darker, then lost my nerve and reposted it as it is now. It must revert! Good thought on #2. #3 isn't really a portrait of the house (which is actually slightly scruffy at the moment) so much as of it within its setting, and of the light and the sky. Sparkross thought that the white balance was off, and although the light was very 'pink' I do on balance agree that it might benefit from a correction. I posted (I think) a slightly more successful shot of it a couple of weeks ago. As Donna also said, this one is slightly 'neither here nor there', most particularly in the company of the others.
 
Toby,

Good to see some landscapes from Essex (y) I find landscape togging in this county difficult, unispiring and frustrating. Your shots though are to be comended. I particulary like the lighting and composition in #2 but feel that a tall portrait crop keeping the horse on a third would make for a very dramatic image. Well done maybe I should try out shooting those flat Essex landscapes again.

Paul
 
Hammerhead64 said:
Toby, Good to see some landscapes from Essex (y) I find landscape togging in this county difficult, unispiring and frustrating. Your shots though are to be comended. I particulary like the lighting and composition in #2 but feel that a tall portrait crop keeping the horse on a third would make for a very dramatic image. Well done maybe I should try out shooting those flat Essex landscapes again.
Click to expand...

Thankyou very much Paul. I have lived in rural Essex all my life and love the landscapes here. They are not dramatic or thrilling in the way that the lakes and the moors are, and the predominantly arable agriculture here can make it quite challenging to find sufficient 'interest' and composition. I guess it is this very characteristic that I am trying, albeit modestly, to articulate, for it has its own stories to tell. Some of the greatest drama here used to lie in the magnificent, stately elm trees that were almost the hallmark of the place, but they are all long gone. However there is still plenty of interest if you think 'small' rather than look for for the big hit. The coastal marshes (I see you have been there) have a lovely openness, with huge skies and changing moods, and there are even bits that go up and down, such as the beautiful rolling weald between Brentwood and Epping - and of course, there is Epping Forest itself, with its soft springs and stunning autumns.

I like your idea relating to the crop on #2. I will give it a shot.
 
Toby
Your words have suitably inspired me and with luck I'll have some time to venture out before the weather changes too much (y)
My father-in-law was curator of the WWII museum at blake hall for 20+ years so that your photos held some additional interest.
I would very much like to see the cropped version as I commented previously I like the lighting and composition very much. Not sure if you're on the find a tog buddy thread but happy to meet fellow Essex togs especially those that can appreciate our great county and show me the error of my ways :D .

Paul
 
Hammerhead64 said:
Toby
Your words have suitably inspired me and with luck I'll have some time to venture out before the weather changes too much (y)
My father-in-law was curator of the WWII museum at blake hall for 20+ years so that your photos held some additional interest.
I would very much like to see the cropped version as I commented previously I like the lighting and composition very much. Not sure if you're on the find a tog buddy thread but happy to meet fellow Essex togs especially those that can appreciate our great county and show me the error of my ways
Click to expand...

Thankyou Paul. Have now added the edit - hope it is along the right lines. Interesting about your pa in law, and a great shame the new generation did away with the museum. For those interested, the right hand wing of the house was Operations Room for RAF North Weald during and post Battle of Britain. When I was a boy you could climb through the windows and sneak in. They had taken out the floor to create the facility whereby the controllers could look down from a closed in platform onto the mapping table, and the old ops room had been simply abandoned and left as it was at the end of the war. You could almost see the ghosts of the WAAFS pushing the markers around the table, and we would suitably scare ourselves and scarper, as small boys do!
 
The edit #2 is a big improvement IMHO. Did you ever visit the Airscene museum at Blake Hall. If you did you would most certainly of met my father in law.
 
Nice work Toby. These are seriously better than your first images of this subject, not only due to your processing but your compositions are much stronger.
 
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