Eilean Donan by night

Thanks to HDR and at beautiful Scotland!!

Comments are welcome.

Larger than life! Really eye catching. Congrats on making a fine image.

This is one of those photographs you step back, take a deep breath while it causes you to hope that one day you too will produce such a work of art. My words are muddled and do this shot little justice. Stunning work! <>< Sonny <>

Powerful!! Thanks for sharing.

Sonny said it to well, indeed it's a remarkable feat; congratulations on a superb work!

killer !!! This red colors reminds me a Yellowstone

Agree with Sonny... mind frozen... no words...

WOW~! GREAT! It seems to be a scene from a film...

Corrado, beautiful and spectacular image. The saturation/contrast/detail is simply superb. Congratulations.

Sorry, it seems unnatural and over processed to me. I dislike the halos around the building, and the radioactive, glow-in-the-dark colors of the hillside.

 

 

Well, my friend, you get the gold star for creating a fantasy but I think it falls a bit short of being a photograph. Years ago I backpacked all through this area, crossed over to Skye at the Kyle of Lochalsh and kept on walking on to Elgol, Loch Scavaig, and the Cuillins. I saw an incredible array of strange and beautiful scenes, but I never saw anything that looked like this. Though I can understand one creating an interpretation of the wonderment that is unique to that lovely spot on our planet, this one is just a bit too processed for my tastes.

 

Have you ever visited Ian Cameron's portfolio? Regards.

Terrific light...superb photo...

Ablaze of emotions and colors,congrats

This is absolutely spectacular. I am speechless. One of the best on PN in a very long time IMO.

Hmmm

On one hand this photo looks like it has really been taken in Scotland, but

other aspects makes me wonder - what kind of a planet is that ??

It doesn't look like Earth anymore !.

Scotland is really great without such a heavy PS treatment, so this particular work just looks too kitschy to my taste.

Sorry Corrado, I like the composition, but not the whole rest.

If Mars ever had a lake then it would look just like this!

Awesome capture at the perfect moment. Very unique colors and tones. Was this at night or more magic hour? The top left of the mountains need a little better masking job.

 

-Jake

I'm honored for your beautiful words.

Thanks a lot at the people who give their own right opinions about the excessive colours I've used.

We must consider the "digital" history of this photo. Sun was down, cloudy, rainy. I took 4 shots in a range of 8 EV. In post-process, I merged every single file in one HDR. Finally I've toned map the HDR exposure, recovering highlights and shadows.

Human eyes can't see colors in low light conditions. Using HDR we are able to capture the real colors even with few light. When I've compressed all of 8EV in 8bit RGB channels, colors jump out.

 

thus I declare "this image is 100% a photograph"

 

a rappresentation of reality with the obvious interpretation (like all photographs in the world)

 

absolutely not a drowing or a fantasy

 

Final treatment has strong saturated colors, for sure. But these colors were in the scene even if human eyes were not able to saw.

 

In my honest opinion (...after all, I shoot it and I compose it) :)

 

p.s. sorry for my poor english!!

 

 

Very impressive and strong image.Bravo.

One more of appreciation. WOW!

Corrado

 

When taking multiple exposures and tone-mapping them together in software like Photomatix the result is almost always completely artificial. The whole hdr-technique is really very tricky and you can say it's flawless, when you can't see the side effect of it.

 

Unfortunately with a new era of hdr, more and more photos on PN are treated with no care whatsoever.

 

I'm not blaming you for that, because I know how tempting it is to produce a photo full of great colours, contrasts etc even when the real conditions are much more subtle. There is a very thin line between reality and fantasy (which is very easy to cross).

 

Everything is obviously up to you :)

 

Best Regards, Piotr

Maybe we cross the line even when we do black and white photography or split toning images.

Maybe we are in the middle of the line every time we take a picture.

I think that is matter of taste and points of view.

However, before my trip/vacation in Scotland, I searched in photo.net and your portfolio was an inspiration for me. You and many others who have taken beautiful pictures gave me a sort of path to follow.

I manipulate images for fx (AD, movies...) it is my job. I deal with that thin line every single day. I have 20GB of raw files coming from that trip. Your words will be precious for me when I'll develop those photos.

Thanks

I'm afraid it is too unnatural for me, with an obvious halo in places, and odd colours. I suspect the original unmanipulated version would be a very nice image of a much photographed scene.

if so, why not pick up a pen to draw... I prefer not to take this kind of picture!  Not photo I mean!

I reckon there is a much better image hidden here. Just get rid of this cheesy HDR, maybe turn it to b/w, tune in the contrast and there you have a realistic, breathtaking scottish landscape. this is a smart digital drawing, impressive to the eye but closer to fractals than to photography. cheers Marco