Old settlements, North Loch Tay, Scotland

I've been messing about with my cameras for over a year now and to my

mind I don't seem to be improving a great deal, so constructive abuse

is most welcome.

 

This picture was taken last weekend on my afternoon walk.

I'd like to see more, or less, of the bush on the right. Otherwise, I really like the light, the glare from the water and the sense of desolation.

Well done! I like it very much!

You're picking up a little flare from the sun, but I like what it's doing atmosphere wise. The flooded wheel ruts make a great lead-in. The distant ruin balances out well with the main house as well as breaking up the glare on the loch. I like it. Maybe less sky and more foreground, so that the clump of grass and rock aren't cut off, but that's it really.

Martin - good point, I think I would have had to have gone for more though, as to go for less would have meant cutting out some of the building. I could of course have photoshopped it out but that won't help my photography :)

 

Stephen - the sun bothers me also. A lot of my pictures get like that I notice, and I can't find a way of stopping it unless I bracket it out, but that make the rest far too dark. I could of course take two exposures and merge them together. Again, not really helping my photography though.

 

Thanks for the comments folks. Appreciated :)

Graet light and composition. It really gives the sense of the location and mood.

I could of course take two exposures and merge them together. > Well I think that's your only option in this case. When the difference between the light parts and the dark are that pronounced there's not much that can be done. Sensors and film can only capture a certain spread of light, so it's a limitation we all face. Sometimes you can use a graduated neutral density filter to darken the bright area, but it wouldn't really work with this shot. Anyway, I like the picture, reminds me of the old country, and as has been mentioned the ruts really guide your eyes towards the croft.

Yeah, too much danger of the N-grad darkening the ruin. Mergers are fine as long as you don't rely on them too much. Sometimes there's just no other option, apart from waiting hours for the sun(assuming its hasn't gotten shy behind cloud) to come round behind you to make the exposure more even. I don't mind the highlights here, they suit the feel of the place.

 

As for the flare... lens hood? And depends on the quality of the lens as well, of course. Its just the way you're shooting into the sun.

This is a greatr shot...wonderful light and composition.....

I love this shot. It has such timeless character. The lines of the tracks and the subtle color works wonderful. Congrats on a great shot!

Love it! Perhaps a polarising filter and/or a ND/gradation filter across the direct sunbeam corner would have helped control the blown highlights and balance better the overall delicacy of the stonework and grass.

Sorry, should have mentioned earlier actually - I did use a circular polariser and ND grad on this shot. The grad filter I had quite high in the holder though so it only really affected the top of the sky and the chimney.

 

Stephen - unfortunately this shot is facing West so I would have had to wait till next morning to get the sun behind me :)

I'm not sure how you can be unhappy with this one - the light's just gorgeous and the whole shot just makes me feel I'm really there.

I know how frustrating it can be when you feel you're not improving. Invariably it turns out that, actually, you are improving, but your expectations are correspondingly higher. I would be mighty pleased had I captured such a wonderfully atmospheric, almost painterly image as this. There's too much quality throughout for the brightness of the sun to weaken the image to any degree.

Magnificent scottish landscape as I love them. I want others again!...

looks like your using masking in photoediting to control exposureand contrast at the same time? the changing contrast is a bit wierd, flat on the left and foreground bush, with higher contrast on the tracks and cottage. i had a play with your pic and it looks like you used the dodge and burn tool!!, try masking a layer and then painting it back in with different contrast/brightness

Alternately, you could have just zoomed in a bit more to get rid of the flare on the water, but kept the light rays on the left (and most of the water-filled ruts). Then your photo would have been less contrasty to begin with. It's tricky to shoot directly into the sun when you want the rest of the image to be visible!

I love it, though. Moody and lovely.

Beautiful landscape! i wish i was there! If you could cut of the branches on the right side it woud be even better I think, great! grtz Selina