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Hook Head
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Landscape is something I’m still struggling with. Metering and motivation (getting up 2 hours before sunrise) are the 2 biggest problems. This is one I took one sunny afternoon (I know :) ) back in April down at Hook Head. I didn’t use an ND grad so the rocks were too dark. I think I did use a circular polarise though. I’ve just learned a masking technique that I can use to bring out detail if I’ve shot in RAW. I had a go and then I googled for a digital velvia technique. This is the end result.
C&C, advice, etc all welcome.
Nice shot. Lovely detail in the rocks and nice reds on the beach. What sets it for me is the lighthouse. Sky has lost a little detail, could crop of some of the sky though.
Lovely shot.
The composition is good. Only you need to play with brightness and contarst.
it would be nice in b&w as well.Hi Joe_Elway
It must be hard being an east coat photographer and finding the motivation to get up in the middle of the night. I have a lot of respect for a good early morning photo as I appreciate how much preplanning and effort is needed. I’m a lazy West coast photographer myself. Don’t you hate them.
Technically, this is good landscape image. You have a point of focus, the image is nicely composed and the light is OK. To make this an outstanding landscape image I think you need two additional critical ingedients “depth” and “mood”.
Regarding “depth” first, although the line of the cliffs does lead you out the lighthouse it doesn’t really communicate depth very well. It may be because of the large area of blocking horizontal rock in the front right. I would consider this as a “view” image and I know from experience that “view” images rarely have huge impact. It is very hard to achieve a sense of depth unless the lighting is exquisite or the background is monumental (e.g Yosemite or Patagonia).
Now onto “mood”. A more dramatic sky would certainly have helped and I would urge you to try out a neutral density graduate to achieve this. Many RAW shooters believe that they don’t need graduates, I personally think that they are essential. The difficulty here would be the type and placement. It looks to me that you would ideally have used a 2 stop graduate filter. I think you would perhaps have needed a soft edged one for this image with the interface along a 45degree angle to tone down much of the sea as well. Not straightforward. Although balancing the exposure would help I still feel that you were just a little late. You might need to set your alarm clock that little bit earlier, or move to the West coast like me!!
On a final thought about motivation, here’s an idea that has helped me,
– Start putting together a album of 10 of your best landscape photographs from 2006. This will give you a sense of achievement for this year and something to go out and better next year. You can show it to your visitors and friends without boring them and they’ll hopefully give you some much needed motivation and suggestions.Andy
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