Llanddew Church

[Barry]

This is another shot of Llanddew Church, I took a similar shot a while ago with the sun light strong on the cross which in fact lost a lot of detail. So I went back another day and took three exposures and merged them together in Photoshop.



Nikon D700, f10, 1/30, 1/50, 1/100, ISO200, Sigma 12-24 Lens at 21mm.

Version 2

[chrisc]

Lot of haloing on that cross and on the building. You might want to give it some noise reduction as there is quite a bit of pixelation going on in the clouds.

Love the overall composition and mood of the shot.

[The Wirefox]

I have just had some of these issues myself with my 'Downs' effort. Have to agree with Chris though..can't fault you composition and capture of mood.

[Barry]

I added extra noise to the sky in order to try and break up some artefacts that were appearing. OK I guess this weeks project is to try and sort out why I'm getting these effects and how to overcome them.

[The Wirefox]

If you are getting posterising in the sky it is worth considering adding a layer of monochromatic film grain. Or is that what you mean by noise. The other cheap and cheerful solution is to take a soft smudge brush at very low opacity and gently work the affected areas in the cloud. Obviously with smudge you need to be careful not to lose edge detail but with a soft edged brush it is possible to make a convincing job of it. Obviously this must be done before the final sharpening.

Sent from my GT-I9100 using ProBoards

[nickjohnson]

Barry, This is a very striking image, I find it engaging – I enjoy wandering around and drinking in the detail. A couple of thoughts – just in case you run into a picky judge like me. First, I wonder if you might try using some distortion control / reduction in pp. The barrel distortion in the foreground cross is off putting. It is also apparent in the divergent verticals in the church.
Second, I am troubled by an apparent inconsistency in the shadows. All the headstones facing the viewer have fairly dark shadows or at least dark faces. In contrast the gable end of the church has a very light shadow and the main subject is fully lit. Sorry – I just find it unnerving.

[Barry]

Thanks Steve, as I said I will have another play with this one in the week. Cheers Nick for your comments, and I never really noticed that the other gravestones were darker , this is something I will address with the rest of the image.

[Barry]

OK, I have had another play, this time I was a lot more careful with the sky, lightened the other gravestones and distorted the main cross to make it look more upright. Is this any better.

[Barry]

I have just got this one back from the printing lab, and it looks great, really pleased with the outcome. It will now go out into the Photo Salon world and see how it goes.