Luminous Landscape Forum

Equipment & Techniques => Landscape & Nature Photography => Topic started by: Shakyphoto (Slim) on June 04, 2013, 10:53:30 am

Title: First pic of my trip to Scotland - Eilean Donan Castle
Post by: Shakyphoto (Slim) on June 04, 2013, 10:53:30 am
(http://farm3.staticflickr.com/2809/8965871570_b8072bb969_c.jpg) (http://www.flickr.com/photos/stephen_tl/8965871570/)

24mm, f14, 6 sec, 100 ISO at 11:30 PM in Dornie Scotland on my way to Isle of Skye.

I took a few at f11 but they didn't come out as well as this one.
Title: Re: First pic of my trip to Scotland - Eilean Donan Castle
Post by: DwayneOakes on June 04, 2013, 11:00:25 am
Outstanding work Stephen. The comp and light are great, you nailed the exposure, the blues and
orange color contrast are great also. The reflection is awesome. No nits from me.

Take care,
Dwayne Oakes
Title: Re: First pic of my trip to Scotland - Eilean Donan Castle
Post by: Paulo Bizarro on June 05, 2013, 04:00:16 am
Very good photo.
Title: Re: First pic of my trip to Scotland - Eilean Donan Castle
Post by: stamper on June 05, 2013, 04:04:44 am
It looks as if it is leaning to the right. A subject that has now become a cliche in Scotland. Personally I haven't done it because it is difficult to get to by public transport. I think it is as good as I have seen of it in print and the internet. Well done. :)
Title: Re: First pic of my trip to Scotland - Eilean Donan Castle
Post by: PhotoEcosse on June 05, 2013, 05:56:16 am
Nice one Slim. It is always good to see a new slant on a much-overdone subject. Catching it at 11:30 pm was a great idea. The enhanced straightening tool in the LR5 Beta should cope with the orientation problem mentioned by Stamper and I wonder if LR's auto lens profile for the lens you were using could help with the converging verticals?

You caught it from the best side for a late-night shot. You didn't by any chance hang around to get the dawn shot from the opposite side?
Title: Re: First pic of my trip to Scotland - Eilean Donan Castle
Post by: Tony Jay on June 05, 2013, 06:02:58 am
Steven, you have received high praise from photographers who know the place well.
Well done.

BTW I really like it too!

Tony Jay
Title: Re: First pic of my trip to Scotland - Eilean Donan Castle
Post by: Chris Calohan on June 05, 2013, 07:09:46 am
+1 but do make the horizon line straight.
Title: Re: First pic of my trip to Scotland - Eilean Donan Castle
Post by: Shakyphoto (Slim) on June 05, 2013, 11:39:15 am
I've received input from different sources on 3 different photos in the past few months that my photos are not quite level.  So I may not have a great eye for this.

You may me right that it is sloping to the right, but I don't know how to verify that it actually is, since the there is no clean horizon line or a reference line I can use.  I always use a leveler on my camera and tripod.  Looking at the photo I see that the castle's vertical lines are slanted to the right, but that may be partly due to the fact the castle is on in the left of the composition and my camera is pointing slightly upwards.  Looking at the horizontal castle lines, it actually slopes to the left, which is consistent since the castle is angled away.  I can't use the bridge as a reference since it is coming towards us and is arched.

It may be that I need to angle the photo to look straight regardless of what the level is.  On this particular photo however, I'm hesitant to do it since it does make the photo smaller, and like the size of it as is.
Title: Re: First pic of my trip to Scotland - Eilean Donan Castle
Post by: Slobodan Blagojevic on June 05, 2013, 01:26:03 pm
Visually, a fine image.

Technically, I see two issues. One is more of a question: I see a rather cool (i.e., bluish) light on the front walls, and a rather warm (orange) light in the back tower. Are they illuminated by a different-type light source?

The second issue is a strong presence of geometric distortion. Whether it is due to a T/S use, or purely because it is a wide-angle and tilted up, but not only it makes things look weird (on a closer inspection), but it also prevents straightening. Otherwise, an image like this would have been rather easy to straighten, even without any horizon reference points, by simply connecting the above-water elements (e.g., chimneys) with their reflection.
Title: Re: First pic of my trip to Scotland - Eilean Donan Castle
Post by: Shakyphoto (Slim) on June 05, 2013, 03:17:12 pm
Yes, the castle itself is lit up by at least two different light sources.

The image was taken with the 24-105 L lens.  I should compare it to the ones I took with the TSE-24 prime which didn't come out as well and see if there was any distortion.  I'll do that later.
Title: Re: First pic of my trip to Scotland - Eilean Donan Castle
Post by: sdwilsonsct on June 05, 2013, 04:43:12 pm
Nice capture. Another issue is that the distant hills seem unnaturally bright. All fixable.
Title: Re: First pic of my trip to Scotland - Eilean Donan Castle
Post by: Larry Heath on June 05, 2013, 06:07:21 pm
Dang! That is one of the best shots I've seem in a while. Good on ya!

Later Larry
Title: Re: First pic of my trip to Scotland - Eilean Donan Castle
Post by: AFairley on June 05, 2013, 09:12:07 pm
The evocative lighting aside, I like the composition.
Title: Re: First pic of my trip to Scotland - Eilean Donan Castle
Post by: Shakyphoto (Slim) on June 05, 2013, 11:04:57 pm
Nice capture. Another issue is that the distant hills seem unnaturally bright. All fixable.

You are right.  I looked at the original raw and overcorrected.

Also the TSE-24 has much less distortion.  I've corrected the 24-105 as much as I could.  Just reposted the image.
Title: Re: First pic of my trip to Scotland - Eilean Donan Castle
Post by: SunnyUK on June 06, 2013, 05:04:09 am
It's beautiful, and far better than the majority of pictures of the castle I remember seeing on the interwebs. Well done!
Title: Re: First pic of my trip to Scotland - Eilean Donan Castle
Post by: Shakyphoto (Slim) on July 07, 2013, 12:25:35 am
Guys,  I just got 400 hits on my Flickr page on this photo in the past 5 hours compared to only about 50 hits for the past month.  Any of you guys had anything do with it? 
Title: Re: First pic of my trip to Scotland - Eilean Donan Castle
Post by: francois on July 07, 2013, 11:38:30 am
Guys,  I just got 400 hits on my Flickr page on this photo in the past 5 hours compared to only about 50 hits for the past month.  Any of you guys had anything do with it? 

Just one hit from me but it's a very nice take on a classical subject. As you used a level on your camera, E.D. Castle's walls might not be verticals. I'd have to fish out my own photos to check this out, tough.
Title: Re: First pic of my trip to Scotland - Eilean Donan Castle
Post by: OnlyNorth on July 07, 2013, 02:07:10 pm
Guys,  I just got 400 hits on my Flickr page on this photo in the past 5 hours compared to only about 50 hits for the past month.  Any of you guys had anything do with it?  
Although I don't know any English subtleties,for me,what You said seems to show a kind of sadness.However I like Your shot.
Title: Re: First pic of my trip to Scotland - Eilean Donan Castle
Post by: PhotoEcosse on July 07, 2013, 02:49:26 pm
Something is happening on Flickr for Eilean Donan, Slim. I have had masses of "favourites" on Flickr today for this one:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/45711981@N00/9223715574/

.
Title: Re: First pic of my trip to Scotland - Eilean Donan Castle
Post by: Shakyphoto (Slim) on July 07, 2013, 03:35:23 pm
Something is happening on Flickr for Eilean Donan, Slim. I have had masses of "favourites" on Flickr today for this one:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/45711981@N00/9223715574/

.

Thanks for the info.  Maybe it's a school project or something.  I tried searching for the source of the traffic with no luck.
Title: Re: First pic of my trip to Scotland - Eilean Donan Castle
Post by: wolfnowl on July 08, 2013, 02:00:21 am
I've received input from different sources on 3 different photos in the past few months that my photos are not quite level.  So I may not have a great eye for this.

You may me right that it is sloping to the right, but I don't know how to verify that it actually is, since the there is no clean horizon line or a reference line I can use.  I always use a leveler on my camera and tripod.  Looking at the photo I see that the castle's vertical lines are slanted to the right, but that may be partly due to the fact the castle is on in the left of the composition and my camera is pointing slightly upwards.  Looking at the horizontal castle lines, it actually slopes to the left, which is consistent since the castle is angled away.  I can't use the bridge as a reference since it is coming towards us and is arched.

It may be that I need to angle the photo to look straight regardless of what the level is.  On this particular photo however, I'm hesitant to do it since it does make the photo smaller, and like the size of it as is.

Hopefully you don't mind my messing with your image, but I pulled it into LR 5 and applied an 'auto' lens correction (didn't have the EXIF information for the lens to profile).  If you want to see what LR did, I combined the original and the 'corrected' version.  The auto correction may have gone a bit too far the other way; the point is that such things can be easy to fix.

Mike.

Title: Re: First pic of my trip to Scotland - Eilean Donan Castle
Post by: Slobodan Blagojevic on July 08, 2013, 02:56:42 am
... the point is that such things can be easy to fix.

Unfortunately, it may not be so easy. It's a complex distortion, involving reflection. Your combined picture just muddies the issue. Perhaps you could post the corrected-only version?