Frosty morning on Dartmoor

Tom Pinchenzo

Tom Pinchenzo

Messages
1,024
Name
Tom
Edit My Images
Yes
Made the most of the good weather on Sunday morning and headed up to Hound Tor on Dartmoor. A big mess of rocks, making composition difficult but fun. Also the first proper outing with my new-to-me Nikon D600, an upgrade from my D3300.

Hound Tor by Tom Pinches, on Flickr

Hound Tor 3 by Tom Pinches, on Flickr

Hound Tor Rocks by Tom Pinches, on Flickr
 
Last edited:
Three very nice landscape style shots, liking all of these very much.

George.
 
Some nice light here. Number 2 is the better of the bunch for me personally. The first is a very close second, number 3 just doesn't sit quite right but I'm not sure why, it's a little busy.
 
Dale. said:
Some nice light here. Number 2 is the better of the bunch for me personally. The first is a very close second, number 3 just doesn't sit quite right but I'm not sure why, it's a little busy.
Click to expand...

I think I agree. 3 doesn’t really have the composition or light. Bit chaotic and no real focus.
 
#1 doesn't really work for me, although the lighting is quite nice there's no obvious composition and the rocks aren't interesting enough without a sky. 2 and 3 are more like it but I think the compositions could have been improved by making more use of the foreground rocks, and #3 seems to need a lens correction as it's warping. You need to clean your sensor by the looks of it - lots and lots of spots
 
Scirocco_09 said:
#1 doesn't really work for me, although the lighting is quite nice there's no obvious composition and the rocks aren't interesting enough without a sky. 2 and 3 are more like it but I think the compositions could have been improved by making more use of the foreground rocks, and #3 seems to need a lens correction as it's warping. You need to clean your sensor by the looks of it - lots and lots of spots
Click to expand...

Yes, the sensor is a mess. It's a new (second hand) D600 from MPB, a camera notorious for flinging crap onto the sensor. I've spoken to them and they're taking it back. I'm replacing it with a D610, which Nikon fixed the problem.

Regarding 3, I've straightened the horizon and cloned out the spots... I think I needed more separation between the foreground rock and the mid-ground rock. Unfortunately I couldn't get any higher!
 
Tom Pinchenzo said:
Yes, the sensor is a mess. It's a new (second hand) D600 from MPB, a camera notorious for flinging crap onto the sensor. I've spoken to them and they're taking it back. I'm replacing it with a D610, which Nikon fixed the problem.

Regarding 3, I've straightened the horizon and cloned out the spots... I think I needed more separation between the foreground rock and the mid-ground rock. Unfortunately I couldn't get any higher!
Click to expand...

I had that issue from MPB a few years ago with D800E and then a replacement D750 - it was a comedy of errors so I got a refund and bought a brand new D750 from WEX which wasn’t much more expensive after a trade in discount...MPB were apologetic but it did make me wonder if they actually check them before selling.

Even if you could use a stepladder (Charlie Waite tip) the problem with getting higher is the foreground rocks would lose impact...worth working the scene and seeing what else can be done.
 
Scirocco_09 said:
I had that issue from MPB a few years ago with D800E and then a replacement D750 - it was a comedy of errors so I got a refund and bought a brand new D750 from WEX which wasn’t much more expensive after a trade in discount...MPB were apologetic but it did make me wonder if they actually check them before selling.

Even if you could use a stepladder (Charlie Waite tip) the problem with getting higher is the foreground rocks would lose impact...worth working the scene and seeing what else can be done.
Click to expand...
I imagine when I send it back they'll list it again as before ("excellent condition") until someone either doesn't notice the issue or can't be bothered to return it. The fact they have a no-quibble return policy means I'd probably still use them again.
 
I tried a re-edit of 2 after reading about ISO-invariance. While ISO-invariance wasn't relevant in this instance, I was intrigued by how well detail could be pulled out of really deep shadow. I actually bracketed the shot and for the original image, merged them on Affinity assuming I wouldn't be able to get everything in one shot. But after seeing examples of 5 stops of brightening in post with great results I gave it a go and actually ended up with an image I was much happier with. I've included the final edit and the original to show how dark the RAW file was. I guess these are the things you discover after going from crop to FF as I would never have been able to do this with my D3300.

Hound Tor 3 (non-HDR) 2 by Tom Pinches, on Flickr

Hound Tor 3 dark by Tom Pinches, on Flickr
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top