A rather wet Glen Etive

[ST1]

This is a HDR from three bracketed images, minor tweaks to the three images in LR (lens correction and picture style) then merged to HDR in PS. All images taken in June just after my encounter with the deer I posted recently.

As can be seen it was a day of good Scottish weather (blustery and wet day).

As always your comments/critique welcome.



Exif: 5D3, 24-105 at 24mm, ISO800! (don't ask ) f16, 1/15, 1/30, 1/60. Tripod, wellies, trousers soaking wet through

[IzzieK]

What a beautiful place...! Though wet and blustery, Scotland will always be beautiful and green...Outside your world Scottish people taught us not to complain when we have fine mist rain or blustering high winds. Some places are worst.

I would have preferred to show more of the water down to the right or as is now, move the shot a little bit to the left. Have you experimented on different crops yet? (Frank Miller taught me this...) try to enlarge the photo in lytebox then move it is around to get a better view on composition options...

Cheers,

[Donald]

... wellies, trousers soaking wet through

That sounds about right for a day's summer shooting in the West Highlands of Scotland !!

A thought - The waterfall is right in the centre. A crop on the left to make is a 5:4 ratio or even more radically, a 1:1 (square) would move the waterfall over to the left and still, I think, give you good backgrounds.

[Shadowman]

Nicely done.

[TonyW]

It all looks and sounds very Scottish to me, beautifully so. I quite like the crop as it is. My eye is naturally drawn to the bottom right and I don't need a border to keep them there and the open space gives some freedom.

[ST1]

Thanks for commenting Izzie, Donald and John, much appreciated.

My initial image included all that both I and the camera saw an the day. I wanted to keep the low cloud in the image as I (wrongly) thought it added to the image. However having looked at Donald's suggestions, I now see the tree as being the anchor to the image.

Here are the crops as suggested by Donald, thank you Sir your views on the potential crops have opened my eyes to the potential of the impact of the crops to the image. Thanks also to Izzie as I had never realised that your could move the lytebox around DOH!

5x4


1x1

[FrankMi]

Very well done and quite appealing Peter!

The inclusion of the active (water) and passive (fog & meadow) elements and leading lines taking the eye from the right to three different directions (up to the fog, across to the meadow, and down to the water flow) provide both excitement and peaceful places for the eye to rest. The result is an image that one could gaze at for some time and not tire of.

The only nit is the commercial advertisement that, small as it is, joltingly yanks the vision out of the grandeur of the scene.

Edit: just saw the crops! There are many ways this scene could be cropped and still provide a beautiful rendition. I know that Donald has a fondness for 1:1 aspect ratios but for this scene my personal preference would be an even wider aspect ration of around 16:9. I wouldn't crop the image to get it, but if the original had just a bit more scene available, particularly on the left, I'd play with seeing if that might extend the leading lines to provide the eye with a smoother, less choppy flow.

[gregj1763]

Very nice image Peter, for me the square crop works the best, I like the balance the tree and waterfall give to the photo with this crop

[ST1]

It all looks and sounds very Scottish to me, beautifully so. I quite like the crop as it is. My eye is naturally drawn to the bottom right and I don't need a border to keep them there and the open space gives some freedom.

Thank you for stopping by and commenting, much appreciated Tony.

As part of my work flow I run an action in PS which resizes the image and produces the two colour border as well as adding my signature. The reason I use the borders is that on some forums the forum background colour is white which can mean that an image gets lost in the background. However on CiC the border is as you say unnecessary. So maybe I should create a work flow especially for posting images here.

[ST1]

Thanks Frank and Greg for taking time to comment.

Frank sorry I don't have any more real estate stage left (or right to be honest) with the original. I did have a wider lens in the car but I was given the being cautious wrt water ingress in to my camera. Plus my good lady was riding shotgun and had I gone back to the car to gather some more kit she would probably had me certified
I do understand that copyright/signatures are a bit like Marmite but it as I responded to Tony at #9 it's part of my work flow which I currently use but... may change. Thanks again
BTW I don't sell images so it isn't really a commercial for my work, after all who would buy anything I produce here.

[Donald]

Bingo ... in my humble opinion!

[NorthernFocus]

A nice scene that captures the feel of the weather conditions. The HDR is handled well and looks very natural. I liked the original image but must say the reposted versions are even better. Well done.

[Nicks Pics]

I like them either way, it could be used either way. Composition on the cropped version might be a little better, but I also like the expanse and the mist in the original

[Ken Curtis]

Hi Peter. I keep moving on to other photos in this forum but then continue to return to this image. To me there is a lot to like, and it is difficult for me to know how to improve it. What I have come up with is the tree is really significant in this image. I wish there were a little more space around it. For me it is located too close to the top edge. I wish you had raised the camera up and to the right just a small amount more. I realize in doing so, we would have seen more of the grey and white clouds in the upper left, but perhaps it would have been a good trade off. I like the bit of grass in the lower left, but the image would still work without it if the camera were moved as suggested. I like the curvature in the hillside on the left above the rocks and would want to retain some of that.

Anyway, it is a beautiful scene. Wish I were there to see and photograph it.

[ST1]

Thanks Dan, Nick and Ken for stopping by and commenting.

Ken the area around Glencoe is tremendous but... I nearly didn't make this image at all!
My wife and I were in Scotland on holiday and I had hoped to be able to capture images of the magnificent scenery around the Glencoe area, with blue skies, fluffy white clouds and mountain tops, one day my wish may come true. I don't think we saw a mountain top without any cloud/mist on them during our trip.
On our way out of Glen Etive it was chucking it down when I saw this waterfall and tree. I didn't see the waterfall on our way in to the glen. I stopped the car and sat for a while hoping that it would stop raining long enough for me to get out and make some images and before SWMBO (who isn't a photographer) decided it was time to move on. I did work this little area of the glen before I got too wet or fell in. Having said that I did have to change my trousers in the car before driving on 🙊🙈🙉
Thanks again for your comments.

[IzzieK]

Peter, you must print this...second installment at least and hang it up a prominent part of your wall. One day when you have enough collection to add to this, perhaps you can commission places where people go to see it as well...it is a magnificent shot. The 5x4 is mesmerizing...

[thegman]

Peter, a most excellent image. The 5:4 crop is perfect. You can almost hear the roar of the waterfall in the stillness of the landscape. I would be very proud if this was my shot.