Experiment

[Dave (Isle of Skye)]

Dusted off the vari ND and went out tonight to reacquaint myself with it and experiment.

Dave

[Slobodan Blagojevic]

That's a very believable rendering of a pleasing scene. Not sure what ND had to do with it though (or perhaps that was the point: that its effect is not obvious).

[kencameron]

Nice composition. On my monitor (high res and calibrated) the rocks come out a bit crunchy and the horizon line is not quite straight. Nit-picking, I know, but your standards are high.

[RSL]

Lovely Dave, and perfect light. But I'm afraid the post is too small to draw any conclusions about crunchiness or even the straightness of the horizon -- on my high res, calibrated monitor.

[kencameron]

The post, as it is, viewed on line, is all we ever have to comment on and I was reporting on my reaction when I looked at it while allowing for the possibility that its appearance might be an artefact of my setup, rather than drawing a conclusion about anything. No post provides much a basis for drawing conclusions about what, say, a print might look like on a wall.

[aduke]

I view this experiment as being on what the existence of the filter does to the water and the clouds. As such, it seems that the clouds were captured reasonably but what's left of the near-shore waves is very strange: they are neither very smooth nor very wave like.

It would be interesting to see the same scene shot without the filter.

Alan

[Jim Pascoe]

It's funny, but quite often when I see a wide-angle shot like this I have the urge to chop the bottom off.  For some reason I don't feel comfortable with tall, narrow pictures.  I love panoramic pictures, but not when they are upended.  Not sure I need to see what is at your feet in this picture but would rather crop it half way between your signature and the brightly lit rock in the foreground.  I'm quite happy to be in a minority of one on this - just the way I feel.

Beautiful light though.

Jim

[Dave (Isle of Skye)]

Sorry guys, perhaps I should have been less cryptic - no what I meant was, that after my dummy spitting moment regarding the use and over use of ND filters to flatten out the sea, that I would accept I was wrong and after eating my words, I would go straight out and do some shots using that technique and this is one of them. OK the sea is not that predominant in the scene, but what there is of it, is quite flat due to a very long exposure.

I also realised that I had been tightening the pixels too tightly (thanks Slobodan) and making the images way too crunchy, which I have also tried to back away from. I suppose crunchy pixel images, are the result of being able to use all the tools to the point where you stumble into the realm of the unbelievable.

Ken the horizon is straight, I use the grid function in PS to check this (Ctrl+'), but I know what you mean, as sometimes the horizon looking awry can be an optical illusion, look at this image  and tell me that the edges look straight? I have a large print of this scene and it is a right old job trying to hang it on the wall so it looks level  

Dave

[Slobodan Blagojevic]

Dave, the horizon might be leveled, but straight it ain't If anything, it looks curved (barrel lens distortion, I suspect).

Or, perhaps, given the recent debates about truth in photography, you simply managed to prove the Earth is round? 

[cjogo]

Hey, we all know the seashore "curves" in that far Northern part of the world...    --  But could be a little barrel distortion in the lens ..Great angle though = always love that near to far image done this fine ~!

[Dave (Isle of Skye)]

Dave, the horizon might be leveled, but straight it ain't If anything, it looks curved (barrel lens distortion, I suspect).

Or, perhaps, given the recent debates about truth in photography, you simply managed to prove the Earth is round? 

OK, when I get back home from Sheffield after visiting the parents, I will quickly apply a slightly inverted curve warp to the image to flatten out any lens distortion, usually only takes -1 or -2 degrees and I do want to get this right 

Dave

[Riaan van Wyk]

I like the photo Dave, there is a nice "c" curve in the rocks leading into the frame. I almost always shoot with a three stop ND- I find it "softens" the light and makes blending foreground and sky exposures easier. Why the ND does that I don't know.

[Jeremy Roussak]

OK, when I get back home from Sheffield after visiting the parents, I will quickly apply a slightly inverted curve warp...

Yes, visiting Sheffield (not to see parents, though) does that to me as well.

Jeremy

[Dave (Isle of Skye)]

Yes, visiting Sheffield (not to see parents, though) does that to me as well.

Jeremy

Sheffield, lived there all my life, but don't miss it or anything about it for a second. I am now in Norfolk BTW and about 700 miles from home.

Dave