Stones #2

Lovely work... but, and label me a heretic for saying so, I actually think the shot would have been better without the rays of sunshine coming down. They look a touch washed out to me and take away some of the almost Celtic atmosphere from those lichen covered rocks.

Strangely though after saying that I think the sun touched hill side in the background definitley should stay, just without the rays coming down.

Beautiful! Strangely enough, what makes the photo for me is the moss on the rocks -- my eye keeps going back to the texture there...

When I brightened the shot and upped the contrast a bit....I found it to be a bit more appealing. The beams of light don't suffer at all either...but...the clouds do get washed out. This is too dark and flat for my tastes. The rocks are an unusual color and that is somewhat interesting. But, for the most part, I really don't get very excited looking at this.

Gratulerer Atle!

 

I've been waiting for this to happen for a while... Well deserved promotion of your work!

I don't know.... I think it looks underexposed, especially in the foreground. Comparing this to the similar shot that was shot vertically, in the same folder, there is a lot more depth and detail in the vertical shot while still retaining the same mood.

I agree with Rob Bernhard above: the size is much too small for me to appreciate it. Should be at least twice as large. The composition is not "bold and simple" enough to work in that small size. But it does look promising. So I would appreciate a larger version. Thanks.

I like the composition, with the three rocks cutting a curving path toward the light. However, the foreground is just too dark. Maybe adding some neutral density up top would have helped?

 

I do think, though, that this would look much better as a big print, even with the underexposed foreground. I am sure we would see detail that just can't come out on an effective 4 by 6 print on the world's crappiest paper (my screen).

This is an outstanding scenic. Given that scenics can very easily become trite, this one seems different enough to warrent a serious look. The first thing that strikes me is the strong composition. The three rocks balancing within themselves. The larger playing against the two smaller. And then the rocks as a group playing against the strong diagonal light from the sun. All elements direct our attention. Of course the one fault to such strongly structured composition is that it is simply that - structured. It then tends to become static rather than dynamic. A minor fault for a landscape. I also enjoy the texture and color in the rocks - something that could be better appreciated in a large print (providing it holds up). Lastly, the image has a wonderful mood to it. The deciding element. I would like, however, to see a little more detail in the foreground. Perhaps just a tad lighter. Congradulations on an excellent image.

Nice, but underexposed in places and blown out in places.

 

It seems to be a pattern here on photo.net: the worthy photographers often get chosen, but their best work often does not. Hmmmmmmmmmm.... could it be a device to generate controversy and enhance site traffic? Think back: probably the least entertaining POW weeks are when a nearly perfect photo is chosen.

I think it is one of Atle's better shots - although there are lots of excellent ones. The lighting on the stone is subtle, and he has exposed well without the use of a graduated filter, which in my view would have spoiled this shot. The colours are more natural here than in some of his other work. I can imagine this looking very fine as a large ciba print.

I kind of agree with Mary, in that it's a little dark and flat. But I do find the rays interesting, especially the fact that the rays actually seem to be in front of the hill on the left. Had to be in just the right spot at the right time, I guess. I also agree with Doug (I'm just too agreeable today) in that it must give the elves a certain degree of satisfaction to incite the masses to riot, and it proves a much more interesting week if there is something to fight over. Nice shot. Thanks for posting.

Hello Atle,

 

Congratulations on POW. I really like this photo and I found it very interesting to compare this version with the square cropped version. I like this one better as it uses the stones to draw interest to the light at the horizon. In the square version it seems to be vice versa. In the square photo the light seems to emphasize the stones. Great example of how small diferences in cropping can alter the meaning of a photo.

 

Congrats again!

I'd say that you certainly deserve the front page... I like this shot very much, but I prefer a few other shots of yours. I will try to look again at your beautiful folders and to post links to m favorite images of yours, and I would be glad if this discussion could be a discussion about your work in general, rather than just about this particular image.

Now, about this picture... I like the mood of it. The ray of light makes it what it is, though I can relate to Paul Watson's comment above saying that without the rays would be interesting too - less spectacular the, but quieter and subtle.

What I like also here is the fact that the rays point too the rocks. I would also suscribe to Steve Bingham's comments about the fact that the rocks are the center of the balance, which makes the image slightly too static.

About the blown highlights and the dark areas, as I see the picture on my monitor, I find the shadow areas really just a tad too dark, almost perfect for a moody shot though... Highlights are not a real problem to me either simply because of the fact I am viewing this on a monitor.

This picture has a lot of fine details and many color nuances. As such, it is necessarily a large file and is bound to lose a lot of its beauty once scaled down to 100Kb at most. I'm pretty sure that the print would look a lot better than what we see here - let's bear that in mind.

That leads me to agree with the very 1st comment in this thread, asking for a larger version. Maybe it could be attached here during the week...? Last but not least, it seems to me that we are looking at a flatbed scan, possibly not an excellent scan, which would have needed a few corrections in PS to get closer to the original image. Am I correct, or was this drum scanned ? If it was a drum scan, I'd beg twice to see a larger version.

Is this a picture I would look at on my wall for the next 5 years ? No. But I'm not a nature photographer and I feel that it is still a spectacular image.

I really like this. My only concern is the blown out highlights, but

maybe that's the scan, or PS, or the net. I actually looked up the

F70 to see if has spot metering capabilities because without it, this

would have been a bear to expose and may even have been beyond the

film's ability to record both shadow and highlight. I see you have a

collection of ND filters so I'm surprised you didn't use one, given

that there's a fairly straight line just below the sun's rays where it

wouldn't be too obvious. I like the dark foreground as is.

 

The composition doesn't strike me as static at all. It's a classic 'C'

curve starting bottom center, moving up to the right , then curving

back throught the lit area to the sun itself.

 

I hope my concerns about the highlights are baseless. . . .

Thanks to the elves and for all the comments. I will try to dig the original slide up to take a closer look... This image was submitted before the 100Kb limit and i had to resized it and resharpened it... a bit to much. Will try to upload a bigger version mid week or so... Regards!

Beautiful composition, with strong foreground rocks leading you to the light rays. I like it that the light seems to be coming towards the camera and not just straight down. Great catch!

I thought I would like this photo better when cropped on each side, but after looking at the cropped version, each photo has it own strong points. This is a nice capture of a magic moment, but I think the "7" ratings are way too high.

It is about darn time a landscape photograph was recognized with POW status. It is particularly fitting that the honor is bestowed upon Atle -- I have been a long time fan of Atle, who I think puts some of the best landscape work on Photo.net. There is wonderful balance in your composition, particularly with how the sun rays shining through the clouds point our eyes to the stones in the foreground. My only suggestion for improvement would be using a 2-stop graduated ND filter to bring out more detail in the foreground.

Caption:

 

"Although many obstacles may get in the way, the reward lies just over the horizon,"

 

OR

 

"The road to Heaven is not a smooth one."

 

Nice Shot Atle

I looked at this picture at work and thought it looked quite bad. I just looked at it at home on a calibrated monitor, and I must say it makes quite a difference. At gamma 2.2 the shadows are dark, but acceptable. Slight tweaks in PhotoShop would be easy to add (curves with a gradient mask would be my first step). So now I'd say it is a good composition which unfortunately got only half lucky with the lighting.

 

Because of the lack of strong color, I think this could work well as a black and white image. Then it would be about texture and value and objects.

Hi Atle! Congratulations! Thats a stunning shot! The perspective as well as the composition are truly aswesome!

Foregroung and background both are nice. The dark and bright parts are very detail.

Romantic in mood & quality of the shot is superb. Congratulations!

It is indeed nice to see a landscape POW, and there are many contenders for the award amongst Atle's folders, but I have to agree this wasn't the best choice. It seems so grainy to me and spoils my enjoyment completely, perhaps the oversharpening caused this. The slight underexposure isn't such a problem to me because the darkness, colour saturation and careful composition appear to be part of Atle's appealing style. The darkness is surely to emphasize the light?

Maybe my landscape aesthetic is too high but I find this image to be as a

whole something less than the inspiration Atle felt in deciding to place his

tripod down to make the photograph.

 

I assume the light Atle came upon was the inspiration and in an informed way

he chose the foreground rocks as a "lead in" to the light. But what are we

leading into? Some nice light rays but what else? Most of the rest of the

image is just filler. The primary focus is the rocks and the light. Having only

those two primary elements, the use of the rocks to lead into the light feels a

bit obvious. The image feels forced because it lacks anything else really

interesting to balance it as a whole. The fact that Atle cropped a square

version of this image suggests he sensed what I'm suggesting.

 

Beyond composition the image is pushing the limits of the chosen film so that

highlights are washed out and shadows are so deep they lack information

that could otherwise give texture to the image. An ND filter might of helped

but I suspect a balanced exposure would have rendered this image less

interesting without some dodging and burning to create variances (visual

interest) throughout the composition.

 

Atle does some excellent work and I think he understands how to make the

most of an image even if the image can't live up to the inspiration. I'd like to

know if Atle thinks this image represents the inspiration he felt in the subject

matter. If yes, then we simply have aesthetic differences. If no, then it begs

the question of whether the image should have even been taken in the first

place. That may seem a foreign concept to a lot of photographers but if you

aspire to be great, then acknowledging a scene that is incredible but can't be

properly realized as a photograph represents a true evolution in your craft.