Loch Fada & The Old Man Of Storr

[Vieri Bottazzini]

The view of the Old man of Storr with Loch Fada in the background is a classic one on the Isle of Skye, in Scotland, and for a reason. Here I reinterpreted the classic using a long exposure in black & white, and creating a dynamic composition of diagonals and contrasting dark and light masses. Having just finished my Workshop on Skye, and visited the beautiful landscapes of this Island once more, I felt like posting one of my 2015 image from Skye (2016 photographs are still in my SD cards...).



With the Pentax 645z and the 80-160mm f/4.5. Thanks for viewing! Best,

Vieri

[Chairman Bill]

It's a very fine image

[Eric Myrvaagnes]

It's a very fine image

+1.

[Slobodan Blagojevic]

...Here I reinterpreted the classic using a long exposure in black & white, and creating a dynamic composition of diagonals and contrasting dark and light masses...

Rarely seen angle, well visualized and executed.

[Rajan Parrikar]

It is lovely.

The images do not display properly on the iPad (unless they exceed 1200px per Slobodan). I hope LuLa fixes this.

[luxborealis]

I agree whole heartedly with the praise. Truly an exceptional moment, composed and realized perfectly in the photograph.

Something I've noticed with all your images, Vieri, is how gorgeously crisp (some might argue too crisp!) and tactile they are. No doubt that is partly due to the Pentax sensor and lenses, but there must be something else you are doing in post-processing to give the edges the edge. I'm using a D800E, which is not far off in quality, but the acutance your photographs show, particularly this one, is amazing.

What's your secret?

[Paulo Bizarro]

Fantastic.

[francois]

Stunning! I like that the Old Man of Storr is part of the greater landscape and not the only subject. Excellent B&W treatment.
Bravo!

[brianrybolt]

This hits all the notes.  Great rendition.  Beautiful.

[philaitman]

I can only wholeheartedly agree with the above. Absolutely magnificent.

[stamper]

All the praise is merited, especially the processing.

[MattBurt]

Very nice. Good job!

[Vieri Bottazzini]

Thank you very much everyone for viewing and for your kind comments, much appreciated! 

I agree whole heartedly with the praise. Truly an exceptional moment, composed and realized perfectly in the photograph.

Something I've noticed with all your images, Vieri, is how gorgeously crisp (some might argue too crisp!) and tactile they are. No doubt that is partly due to the Pentax sensor and lenses, but there must be something else you are doing in post-processing to give the edges the edge. I'm using a D800E, which is not far off in quality, but the acutance your photographs show, particularly this one, is amazing.

What's your secret?

Terry, first of all thank you very much, I am glad you are enjoying the crispy air around the Old Man, it was a very crispy morning indeed!  Seriously, about the PP I am using SilverEfex for my B&W conversions, and I spend a lot of time on each image to try and find the right balance of crispiness; I process all images individually and they all are processed differently, so I haven't a recipe that I put to work for every image. However, something I do and I might suggest (if you aren't doing it already, of course) is sharpening very little during RAW conversion, adding some sharpness when I open the images in PS, adding a little more in SilverEfex (or ColorEfex), adding some more at the end of the process before printing them - I also check for artefacts around the edges and clean them if present. I think that not sharpening all at once works better to keep things sharp and crips without adding artefacts... I hope this helps! Best,

Vieri