man on dunes

[robmarshall]

I was going for subtle moody stuff. Did it work?

[Barry]

I like the way you have used to track to lead your eye into the image, and having the man there does help, but felt that the wire fence just does not look so nice (maybe you need to clone in a nice dry stone wall ).

[chrisc]

Me seems to remember another venture of yours up that trail...

For me, this shot works better if the figure is looking out to the right as in this present gaze, the inward look ends too abruptly, leaving the right side of the frame virtually ignored.

[manthos]

Rob, it works perfectly for me. Let me disagree with both suggestions. Both the fence and the way he is looking get my imagination working.

[katynoelle]

Did I see this on 500px? Where did I just see this?

Well, as far as moody goes....mmmm....I think that I like that similar series that you took, last winter. There was a quality to the light and texture in the grasses that I just loved, mood-wise, with those. However, the story in this one is just stellar. What does he see around the corner? He's cresting the hill and making a turn - the wonderful clouds behind him (kind of like happens in a 'hero shot'.) It's a great wind swept story. I really like the shot.

Have you done something different, here, with your processing or something?

[The Wirefox]

I do like the shot and it does have good composition but there seems to be a lot of noise in the clouds. I cannot locate EXIF so I don't know if its high ISO or caused by underexposure recovery...or are we seeing the same issue a certain Scots photographer had when using Efex

[robmarshall]

Nov 1, 2011 20:28:02 GMT The Wirefox said:

so I don't know if its high ISO or caused by underexposure recovery...or are we seeing the same issue a certain Scots photographer had when using Efex

I cannot tell a lie. It was a great shot opportunity, but he was there for just a few seconds. I had previously cranked down the exposure to about two stops under and I just took the shot, then couldn't work out why it was so dark The moral of this story is - always know what your camera is set to, and like the proverbial Boy Scouts - always be prepared.

[The Wirefox]

Its a pity noise reduction cannot be applied selectively or at least it can't in UFRaw. Not sure about GREYstoration plugin for GIMP. I will have to try it. I have plenty of images where I have deliberately underexposed to get 'mood' until I realised it is far safer to shoot slightly to the right. The trouble is that with your shot longer exposure would have blown the highlights in the sky. Its always a trade off.

[robmarshall]

Nov 1, 2011 21:46:07 GMT The Wirefox said:

Its a pity noise reduction cannot be applied selectively or at least it can't in UFRaw.

You can. I use Neat Image for NR and if you apply the NR to a duplicate layer, you can then remove the NR you don't want in a layer mask with a brush.