Cwmyoy Church

[Barry]

This old church is tucked away deep in the Black Mountains, and every wall is leaning in a different direction. Today I waited for sometime hoping that some sunlight would eventually filter through a hole in the cloud, so when it did I had to work fast.



Nikon D700, f10, 1/160sec, ISO200, Sigma 12-24 at 21mm.

Edited version 1 (lighten pathway and darkned main gravestone, slightlty lighten left hand gravestone, and darken left hand upper corner.



Edited version 2 (dodged grass around path & burned right hand lower corner.



Edited version 3 (taking on suggestions by Chris and Steve, I have toned down left hand monument and just darked start of path).

[chrisc]

It seemed just a bit busy to me...lots of monuments partially lit and just moving my eye hither, thither and yon...

So, of course, I played and decided for me, a square crop would serve the image impact equally as well. I did have to lighten the lower left monumnet significantly to counterbalance the lighting.

Just my opinion, eh?

[Barry]

Jan 2, 2012 18:48:24 GMT chrisc said:

It seemed just a bit busy to me...lots of monuments partially lit and just moving my eye hither, thither and yon...

That is the problem with graveyards . Nice to see someone else's vision, I did not consider a square crop as I quite liked the tall monument that was lit up. But your edit does fill the frame well.

[jiro]

For me, the original landscape crop is just fine. If this was my shot, I would probably dodge the grass areas to the left and right side of the walkway just a tad as I find those shadow areas a little bit dark. Are we going to have a full January month of B&W shots this year? ;D

[cannockwolf]

hears my tuppence worth ;D

the first version is fine for me, but i would bring the detail out of the front gravestone, hopefully this would darken it down a tad too, then lighten the path to give a stronger lead to the church which is spot on for me, another thing is i feel like its leaning to the left, its prob bob on but thats the impression i get. Also bring some more detail out of the other left leading grave stones too and then take the top left corner down a touch

[Barry]

Thanks for your comments, all taken on board and did a few edits. Are any of these edited versions any better or not.

[cannockwolf]

i think that last one is looking pretty sweet mate, i would try easing back the exposure of the monument just to see if its too bright, might look better slightly darker

[Barry]

I see what you mean now about the tall monument, I will tone it down a tad before getting printed.

[The Wirefox]

Edited version 2 certainly works for me. When I first saw this image my first thought was that the tall monument should be taken out altogether because you have a great lead in with the path but the eye tends to snap to that monument before the journey down the path is completed.

The natural sequence of viewing would be glance at headstone, follow path, zoom out to take in the image as a whole. The monument detracts from that rather pleasing sequence.

[chrisc]

I think I would tend to blend the walkway from a darker foreground to a lighter background...as it is, it is too evenly lit for the rest of the scene.

[Barry]

Thanks Steve and Chris, I did consider removing left hand monument, but then thought that there would be too much of a dark area, so I toned it down a bit. I also darkened down the start of the path.

[chrisc]

Just a bit more at the foot of the pathway...still too light for that part of the scene.

[cannockwolf]

I like that last one mate, spot on