"Scottish Countryside"

Nice composition of a scottish landscape which is not among those we can see the more in photos.

If you are a lover of scottish landscapes, can I invite you to see my last loaded photos here and my Scotland folder here ?

Your comments very appreciated.

 

!!! Please see the larger version !!!

Great afternoon sun and sky, excellent perspective.

Very nice colors and composition. - Sean

very nice

Excellent!!

very well seen. beautifully composed & adored with strong nice color. light is wonderful throught the frame. that really sets it apart from other photos. fine detail as well. regards!

Nice shot with very fine composition , regards, RK!

Really solid image in terms of composition, color saturation and interest. I love the very textural turned field nearby, contrasted by the sharp, piercing barb wire in the foreground. Draws the viewer right into the scene.

Wonderful composition. Great depth of field. I can find nothing I would change in this photograph

 

cheers,

 

Bill

I really like the depth of field, the angle from where you shot because the structure helps in the composition of the shot and leads you to the plowed land. With it's colors it just POPS!

Okay, Piotr. You offered. :-)

 

The first thing that would really help me is to hear about your workflow. From beginning to end. Do you go out to a certain area (like this?) and blanket it with a zillion shots from every possible angle with every possible lens and exposure setting? Do you shoot with HDR in mind? Stitching? What are your favorite exposure settings? ISO?

 

When you get the shots into your computer, how do you start? What tools do you use in PS? (Are you using PScs3?) What other finishing softwares do you use? (You mentioned LightZone....)

 

And ............ how often do you really get gorgeous skies like this in Scotland? :-)

 

Thanks!!!

Hello Lou Ann :)

 

Ok - let's start from the beggining :

 

When I'm in the field I always try to be in the right place and a right time (it means that beside sunset and sunrise times the light throughout the rest of the day is too harsh and less appealing).

 

I try to arrive well before the actual "magic hours" to allow myself get familiar with a certain place. I choose very few (1-3) compositions and wait for the proper light. My advice is to get our more but take fewer pictures.

 

When it comes to the technique and equipment. The most important part is a tripod. I use it for every single photo I take. It's crucial thing for the best quality print and it has to be really sturdy.

 

The majority of my shots are taken with ISO 100 as I want to keep the noise levels as low as possible. If there is a moving object (like flowing water) I adjust the ISO to the desired shutter speed. When it comes to the aperture setting - it depends on the desired DOF. As I usually need everything in focus, I use so-called hyperfocal focusing technique. It enables me to obtain very large DOF from about 0.5 m to infinity with apertures f/11 or similar). It depends on the lens and actual focal length but the idea is the same. Type "hyperfocal technique" in Google and you'll find out what it is all about.

 

I use mainly my graduated filters to get a proper exposure (the most used filter is 0.6 Hard Edge). When the composition is quite tricky I do exposure bracketing and blend it together later using either Photomatix (HDR), or I do some manual DRI in Photoshop (using layers and masks).

 

My typical workflow is really simple. With single shots I do about 90% of work (basic exposure correction, contrast and colours adjustment) when developing the RAW file (I use either Raw Shooter software or Adobe Lightroom). Then I perform finishing touches in PS CS3 (Levels correction, dust spot cleaning). I have a couple of my favourite PS plugins. One is Neat Image (to do some Noise Reduction) and the other is PTLens (to remove some lens distortions). With panorama shots it's more difficult and I use Panorama Tools for photo stitching.

 

This is preety much it.

 

I discovered LightZone a couple of days ago and found it very nice in terms of interface and options available.

 

When it comes to the skies in Scotland :) - you know, the weather here is completely unpredictable so you never know what you're about to encounter, but there are times of pure magic.

 

Hope it was helpful

 

Piotr

Helpful is an understatement! Thank you SO much!! Like I said ... I love your landscapes ... I will take what you've said to heart and see what I can do with them. Thank you thank you thank you!!!

Stunning !