Lord of the Realm

A magnificent shot. I've never seen this area looking anything but covered in cloud so this is a revelation! The light is wonderful and the ice and snow add a touch of fantasy and mood to the shot. The foreground heathers add a good sense of depth. Is a 0.45 ND grad is equivalent to 1.5 stops? The 'join' is imperceptible.

 

Nitpick : I sympathise with the comment above about the light border to the lower part of the mountain which gives the impression (to me) of an imperfectly done composite. (I am sure this is not a composite but it is a pity that it could be seen that way. I suggest the light borders are darkened to merge in.

 

A very fine shot and a rare 7/7 from me.

7/7 Excellent photo

Really beautiful! congrats.

Hi Colin, first thanks for your comments they are greatly appreciated. You are the second person to see these halo effects on the mountain. If I look very closely I can see sort of squiggle lines around the peak but for the life of me I don't see a light halo. The squiggles I assume are a jpeg compresson artefact. Problem is because I can't see it on my monitor I am not going to be able to remove it. The original TIFF I enlarge in photoshop and no evidence of a halo can be seen. I would be interested to know how many others see this halo effect because I am considering upgrading my flat bed scanner.

I think it's a wonderful composition and beautiful place.It would be perfect ,exept IMO it has a strong cyan cast.Regards,Judy

Hi Judy, you maybe right about the cyan cast of course the reflection of the sky in the shadows has some responsibility for the colour cast. I checked it against the original slide and it is a very good match but then there is nothing to stop Velvia picking up colour casts either. I think I like it best this way I tried neutralising the mid tones but it didn't hold true to the memory of the view I originally beheld, so the cast if there is one will stay.

This is indeed wonderful. Thank you!

Simply breathtaking...

Hi Ian. Just revisiting here, I saw the comments about the squiggles. I can just slightly see them on the lower right slope of the "Lord" in the sky/land interface. I downloaded this and took a look at a magnified view. There are some artifacts in the sky along the edge of the mountain. These look exactly like the jpeg compression artifacts that PhotoNet introduces in some uploads. It is especially troublesome when there is an expanse of blue sky with a land mass or other object protruding into it. An example in one of my own photographs can be seen HERE. I have never seen these in the original TIF file, only when I upload to PhotoNet. Regards.

Hi Walter had a lok at your pic and your right the same squiggles. C'est la vie I guess, at least they don't show in the original.

Excellent landscape. Very beautiful composition.

Amazing! This place is for real? Wonderful!!

Nothing I like seeing more than this mountain, the Shepherd of Scotland. I've yet to take a really great pic of it yet myself. This one is truly stunning. Great work guy.

I was wondering like Alin,is there any such beautiful place on earth? Fantastic landscape and very good caption,Ian.

i can see the jpeg artifacts on the lower right of the mountain on both of my monitors and in the other room on the other computer, i suggest you at least turn the gamma up on the monitor temporarily and you should see it. the jpeg stuff may or may not be contributing to the halo effect.

 

i don't think that the scanner would halo like this on those details and not on the others (like the ice in the water)

 

that said, based on the levels on the mountain, the whites of the snow, the whites of the clouds, if you didn't combine images, you at least masked some layers or burned or dodged. all of which are acceptable as unmanipulated i believe and if not they should be as long as you don't create drama which wasn't there.

 

like all these OTHER guys around who's sky is 2 stops darker than the foreground and the sky is orange, but the foreground is perfectly color balanced - they claim no manipulation, but that's probably for another discussion, but it really bugs me.

 

don't take my comments as criticism, i'm only responding to the comments and concerns thus far. it's a nice photo, very nice lighting and color retention.

Whether manipulated or not does not really matter. And I understand that you do not do manipulations. This is a remarkable image. The composition, which is more important, is spot on. The, (I like the lemon) light gives the image its depth and to some extent its sharpness. I know this mountain very well and I've seen it in most moods. This is simply the best of many shots I have seen of its open face.

Regards Ken.

To my eye the colour in that shot does not look natural. I lived in Glencoe for a while, and have never seen that type of light. That particular angle has been done to death too.

 

My hint for good shot in Glencoe is to head up Am Bodach and shoot towards Loch Achtrioctan

I first saw this a very long ago, perhaps when you first posted it. It is certainly worth visiting again.

 

I had this pegged as Iceland, not Scotland. What a great mountain! What a great shot! There's nothing I would change here. Centering is effective in cases like this.

 

The foreground is quite incredible, too. What a cold-looking landscape, and yet there is little snow on the ground, even in February (exposure date of February 10th, you say in the details).

 

Thank you for this one.

 

--Lannie

It looks as one person said a little unnatural and i would agree even thought he composition is brilliant and has been done before many times. What appears to be backlighting or giving that effect is great and that time of year

is also wonderful but 6/7

Un-freaking-believable!!

 

 

Just truly awesome...composition is great too.

 

 

This is the kind of shot we go for...this quality. Superb.

Fabulous for lack of more powerful words.

Love the crop, the light, the tree, everything. If this view is 'done to death' (?) then someone should come up with a better one - until then, this is the gold standard.

What great well composed capture with sensitive touch of ps