Grafarkirkja

[Rajan Parrikar]

In south Iceland.

Grafarkirkja

[francois]

Beauty in the solitude!

[mjrichardson]

Rajan

I'm not sure this works so well for me, it's a simple scene, flat light but the church appears over exposed and the roof far too saturated to my eye. I much prefer the second shot on your blog, much more natural looking. Apart from the processing of the church, the scene is ok but you have produced much nicer. Sorry.

Mat

[luxborealis]

Rajan - another great image (sorry, I'm running out of superlatives!) The light is wonderfully soft and the scene tranquil. However, I agree with Mat about the church "popping" too much. It would already pop due to the red roof and stark white sides. Perhaps you've done nothing to it and it's naturally that way; if that's the case, you may consider taking down a notch.

On my iPad, the colours seem overly warm, but that might just be the iPad. One last thing...have you considered cropping a bit off the right side? This would cause the church to be less central, thus creating more "movement".

Thanks for sharing, Rajan

[Rajan Parrikar]

Gentlemen - thank you for the critiques.

Mat - the light of an overcast day draws out the character of Iceland's landscape much better than the light at the 'edges'.  True, the first and final rays of the sun here are sublime here, but the 'flat light,' as you put it, is nothing to sneeze at.

[mjrichardson]

Rajan

Flat light was not meant as a negative, it was just in contrast to the over exposed church. I have stood in almost the same spot as your shot was taken, I know the beauty in all light on Iceland, I just feel you have tried to augment it and it looks odd, your second shot looks far more believable and shows how natural the flat light can be. just my view of course.

Mat

[Rajan Parrikar]

Rajan

Flat light was not meant as a negative, it was just in contrast to the over exposed church. I have stood in almost the same spot as your shot was taken, I know the beauty in all light on Iceland, I just feel you have tried to augment it and it looks odd, your second shot looks far more believable and shows how natural the flat light can be. just my view of course.

Mat

Mat,

Thank you for the follow-up.  Please see attached file of the RAW capture at default ACR settings.  I have re-interpreted the scene, yes, but I believe in a believable way :-)

[mjrichardson]

Rajan

If you feel you have interpreted it in a believable way then I guess that's all that matters! For what it's worth, the screen grab is a much nicer shot to my eye, the church less central, the colours more muted but thats obviously just my observations. I stand by the comment that you have produced much nicer shots.

Mat

[Rajan Parrikar]

Mat,  I'll revisit it again in a few days and see if I feel differently.  I look at my blog posts as 'first drafts' not as the finished article, and feedback such as yours is important.  Thanks, again.

[Eric Myrvaagnes]

To me, this looks like the quintessential Icelandic scene, with typical threatening sky, lush greens, and the iconic white church with red roof.
My memories of Iceland are that the red of the roof and the green of the landscape looked "oversaturated" even to the naked eye! So I can't imagine a rendering that would be more "realistic" than Rajan's.

Beautiful, simple, elegant.

[john beardsworth]

I like it, particularly because of the wall, though I could do without the foreground. Have you tried cropping out the area to the right of the wall, and below the stripe in the grass?

[Jeremy Roussak]

If you feel you have interpreted it in a believable way then I guess that's all that matters! For what it's worth, the screen grab is a much nicer shot to my eye, the church less central, the colours more muted but thats obviously just my observations.

I agree entirely about the framing: I much prefer asymmetry. I like the colours in your original post, though, Rajan.

Jeremy

[Rajan Parrikar]

John and Jeremy - thank you.

[Paulo Bizarro]

Good photo, and indeed a nice companion to your Goa one.

[Jon Meddings]

Rajan, I love the shot.  But for a different reason than everyone else.  I took the same shot in 2008 when the last light before a storm fell on the church.  Here is the same spot from 8 years ago!

[Rajan Parrikar]

Rajan, I love the shot.  But for a different reason than everyone else.  I took the same shot in 2008 when the last light before a storm fell on the church.  Here is the same spot from 8 years ago!

Beautiful image, Jon.  How lucky to be in position to catch a spotlight event like this!

[Doc]

I love both images.
Perhaps the first one, would be better as mentioned, if it had the bottom cropped, to bring the building lower in the photo.
But this is purely a matter of taste.
They are brilliant photos.

[Lonnie Utah]

I agree with the others. I think this would work very well as a 2:1 Pano crop.