The Salt Cellar

Not been there for quite a few years, lovely ;)
 
  • Like
Reactions: smr
This is an extremely striking image - great colours, amazing lighting and sky.

I struggle a bit with it because the image lacks a sense of reality, mostly due to the way the light seems to be falling on the foreground stack and rock as well as the heather. Just showed it to my (non photographer) wife who said "that looks completely unreal" and asked if it were a 'straight' photograph. So I would ask, how much of this is natural, and how much from the processing 'bottle'?
 
ancient_mariner said:
This is an extremely striking image - great colours, amazing lighting and sky.

I struggle a bit with it because the image lacks a sense of reality, mostly due to the way the light seems to be falling on the foreground stack and rock as well as the heather. Just showed it to my (non photographer) wife who said "that looks completely unreal" and asked if it were a 'straight' photograph. So I would ask, how much of this is natural, and how much from the processing 'bottle'?
Click to expand...

Thanks for the comment. Although, I'm not exactly sure what your wife means when she says it looks unreal ? The image is constructed from 3 bracketed shots. All edited in Lightroom.
 
We have a similar feature just above my town which is called the Devil's Chimney. It is believed that it was created by quarrymen about 100 years ago but has become a key landmark. It is not too difficult to get to but a little riskier to get the ideal shot; something I did many years ago but would not risk now. Unfortunately, I never captured it in the excellent lighting you have though it should be possible as the direction to take it would be towards the NW (good for a summer sunset).

Dave
 
smr said:
Thanks for the comment. Although, I'm not exactly sure what your wife means when she says it looks unreal ? The image is constructed from 3 bracketed shots. All edited in Lightroom.
Click to expand...

The picture looks like it's constructed from multiple images. I can see the source of light is behind the main column, yet this side of the column is bright, appearing to have a lightsource behind and above the photographer when it should be in shadow. I suspect that if you look at the image taken for the sky, the column is in shadow and that's a natural look - how it really was. The flat rock in the foreground gives it away, where the side facing the camera in the same way the stack does is in deep shadow, yet the stack is bright.

To make a more pleasing photograph that has a sense of still being real, bracketing could be used to recover some shadow detail, but it should still be shadow. As presented, parts of the rock and the foreground are brighter than parts of the sky, when in reality they were several stops darker.

Does that explain a little better?
 
Got a bit of potential that shot with a more sympathetic processing - as others have mentioned lighting is really unnatural and the WB choice be it in post or camera is a bit too warm, it's magenta on magenta with the heather and the sky which gives it a muddy/sickly look to it. If that's an artistic choice then fair enough, compositionally I like it though.
 
That is beautiful for sure. You've captured and processed that light really well. (y)
 
  • Like
Reactions: smr
I do not understand the criticism. If you have presented it how you remembered it, then that is fine for me. I would have done the same if I had been there 3 exposures processed using Photo Merge HDR in LR produces a more natural result than other HDR S/W. Well done!

Dave
 
  • Like
Reactions: smr
Dave Canon said:
I do not understand the criticism. If you have presented it how you remembered it, then that is fine for me. I would have done the same if I had been there 3 exposures processed using Photo Merge HDR in LR produces a more natural result than other HDR S/W. Well done!

Dave
Click to expand...

Thanks Dave! (y)
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top