regis

vale vale - the only Photoshop modification here was simple splitt-toning conversion. Nothing really sophisticated - just a different thing to classic B&W.

You can always check colour version to see whether you prefer original to my alternative vision.

http://photo.net/photodb/photo?photo_id=6695483

Piotr

Ayrshire (Scottish Gaelic: Siorrachd Inbhir Àir) is a county of south-

west Scotland, located on the shores of the Firth of Clyde. Its principal

towns include Ayr, Kilmarnock and Irvine. The town of Troon on the

coast has hosted the British Open Golf Championship twice in the last

seven years, eight times in total, including the most recent one in 2004.

Ayrshire is one of the most agriculturally fertile regions of Scotland.

Potatoes are grown in fields near the coast, using seaweed-based

fertiliser, and in addition the region produces pork products, other root

vegetables, cattle and summer berries such as strawberries are grown

abundantly.

The area used to be heavily industrialised, with steel making, coal

mining and in Kilmarnock numerous examples of production-line

manufacturing, most famously Johnnie Walker whisky.

Beside that, Ayrshire has a truly beautiful coastline, with lovely views

overlooking Island of Arran and Firth of Clyde.

And all these beautiful views are just about an hour drive from busy city

of Glasgow.

Cheers

Piotr

Hi again Kah

I never really check the possible tilt based on the clouds level - as it may be very misleading - but if you simply check the water surface level you'll see the tilt there. And using the measure tool it will give you an angle of ~ 0.6 degree.

When it comes to lens vignetting - it is obviously because of a strong grad used - but it is clearly more of a problem with FF than APS-C cameras. There are many online reviews available that proves this point and I came to the same conclusion after using both 20D + 10-22mm and 5D +17-40/16-35.

Needless to say - it's quite easy to be corrected - even on the entry raw-development stage.

Cheers

Hello Andrzej

Very nice scene and lovely light to begin with.

I think that your classical horizontal composition works here really well, however it might also be interesting to cut it into the square format (just leaving the right side).

Very good exposure control throughout the whole range. I'm glad not to see another badly processed HDR image, which this site is full of.

The only thing I would slightly correct is the Sun surface with some greenish circle around it. It happens quite often when shooting directly into the light and when some highlights clipping occur.

Coming back to your composition - one slightly distracting thing is that tree/bush in the lower right corner. It would be perfect to get rid of that :)

Beside that - lovely scene.

Pozdrowienia z Glasgow :)

Piotr

Very nice one Kah

Amazing place and very interesting light.

If I were to be really picky - I would have mentioned clearly visible lens vignetting.

It's a bit distracting to me and I would try to correct it (that's the issue with FF cameras when attaching extra filters.

Another thing is the horizon line - it seems to be tilted to the left side.

Beside that - very nice shot

Cheers

Piotr

John - thank you for your support. I am seriously tired with that, too. Very often I am bombarded with bunch of 3/3's just right after posting new image. All of them are anonymous of course :)

What's even more strange - some new anonymous ratings appear one-two days later (no idea how it is possible ?). And that doesn't happen just to me - a lot of friends here have a similar feeling about it.

Unfortunatelly PN has the most ridiculous rating system I have seen on many photo sites. Obviously you can always debate about the sense of ratings at all, but there are some other clear methods available too.

I don't mind honest or terse critiques and I don't mind low marks either - but let someone really tell me what's wrong. I am trying to do my best and I really appreciate good feedback.

Coming back to your comment.

It was actually my intention to capture the passing cloud (or rather mist - I would say) in that position. The whole composition is a bit X-shaped to me (and I wanted to have such misty upper-left corner to balance the clear one from the lower right part). I know it may sound a bit strange :) - but that's just sort of my vision about it.

Weather was really playing a funny game that day. The whole area was covered with a thick & dense mist and there were just few breaks of clear sunshine. An hour (or more) later it completely cleared out.

If you're interested to see that - stay tuned :)

William - thanks for your comment. I'm glad you like my photos. Need to check on your work from this beautiful country.

Cheers

Piotr

Mirek - dzieki za odwiedziny i komentarz. Milo, ze sie podoba.

Co do tych niskich ocen to taka juz przypadlosc tego portalu (jeden z najglupszych systemow oceniania jakie widzialem) - o ile w ogole mozna mowic o sensownosci oceniania. Ogolnie pelno tu nawiedzonych szalencow (coby nie powiedziec mocniej), ktorzy strzelaja tego typu ocenami zza parawanu anonimowosci. Przyre, ale co zrobic

Pozdrawiam

A very special morning in a very special place. Rannoch Moor, Scottish

Highlands. Must be viewed LARGE !!!. Your comments/critiques much

appreciated

Hello again. This shot was taken during one long weekend in May 2008.

After a terrible Sunday's weather Monday was supposed to be really

nice :) Very intense rain fall over the night combined with a sudden

temperature drop and high humidity resulted in so-called "temperature

inversion effect". My plans for the sunrise time were completely

different, but very early in the morning (4am) I found my car stuck at the

camping site - with the main gate locked :( Should have checked that

before, but that's just life. That little 'incident' has helped me with

making a quick decision to walk the Ben Nevis track instead :) Who

knows - maybe that was a good choice. Views from up there were

really beautiful and I could witness myself this interesting phenomenon.

Please view large. Regards - Piotr.

Hi Richard

Thanks for your comment

With such a crazy British weather you never know :) - but that's the beauty of landscape photography for me.

When it comes to the technical side - GND filters were preety much useless in this case - I mean I could have used some strong grad but the sky would have been too dark to my taste and the general filter transition too obvious.

I did, therefore, a blend of three exposures to make it more natural.

Yes - new equipment is a very nice tool indeed, hovewer is has some flaws over the old one (i.e. larger barrel distortion and stronger vignetting). Anyway - it's nothing to be worry about (i's easily fixable) and the general photo quality is really impressive (great improvement over the old 20D).

I only wish I had bought it long time ago :)

Cheers

Piotr

Thanks for your comments. I appreciate it

John - I am always interested in such trips but I'll be moving from Glasgow really soon so it's going to be a quite intense time for me.

David - no I haven't been lucky enough so far. The other day it was completely overcast, but I'm not going to give up :)

Cheers

Piotr

Czesc Mariusz

Kapitalna fotka.

Swietnie odany klimat.

Moje gratulacje

Pozdrawiam

Ben Aan, Loch Lomond and the Trossachs National Park, Scotland

View from the top of Ben Aan (455m)

You can see Loch Katrine and Ben Venue (737m) on the left.

It's my second attempt to photograph this location - but let me describe

how it was at the first time.

Since I've heard some good things about this spot I decided to visit it by

myself.

Weather forecast was highly optimistic - as more than 90% chance of

cloud free sky was forecasted (not that I prefer cloudless skies) - but it

was just the general weather description for that day.

My plan was therefore quite simple - early wake up at 1:30am, set off at

2am, arrival at the location around 3am and one hour uphill walk through

dark forest with a light torch in my hand.

It is a fact that weather forecasts in this country are nothing but a joke -

and that's probably why Brit's talk so much about it :)

And it was probably heavy rain (raining while I was driving to the

location) that made me sure about the effectiveness of Meteo-Gov

institution.

Needless to say - early walk through unknown, dark forest, when all

you hear is your breath and rain drops falling down the trees is nothing

but unforgettable experience. It would have been even more

unforgettable if I had met some wild bear or other forest creature on my

way up :D

Once I reached the top and set up my camera all I had to do was to

wait. Unfortunately no amazing sunrise took place. The whole area was

covered with thick clouds.

That was the story with my first attempt.

On my second one I decided to capture a sunset scene instead - and

had more luck this time.

Hope you'll like it.

Please have a look at the larger version.

Your comments/critiques much appreciated.

Piotr

Hi David

Don't touch the contrast !!!

It's absolutely fine

C'mon folks - if that was taken in a foggy conditions how would you expect it to look like ?

I really like it - very nice composition David.

What I could suggest is just to decrease slightly highlights contrast (just highlights). It's a bit too bright to my taste, but that may be also a matter of monitor calibration.

Great shot anyway

Always nice to see some new photos of yours

Cheers

Piotr

Hi Eugenio

I'm always trying to be honest with my opinions.

I realise my comment might have sounded a bit harsh but I didn't mean to be rude - sorry if you felt offended by that.

Critique process is always subjective and so is everyone's taste. There is a wise latin sentence "De gustibus non est disputandum", which depicts it quite well - but that's what all online discussion forums are all about, aren't they ?

I must say I'm not a keen on HDR technique - as too often I see photos with nasty artifacts that lot of folks doesn't seem to notice at all. Many people enjoy their strong, vibrant colours but in my opinion the thin line between reality and science-fiction begins to fade away.

I'm not completely against this technique either (I use it from time to time), but I simply prefer more subtle approach.

Cheers

Piotr

I always wonder why do people kill their photos with such a ridiculous post-processing. Because it's so colourful or what ? Well - I know it may be a bit eye-catching at the first glance, but it's kitschy like hell as well.

Sorry Eugenio but I've noticed some great shots in your portfolio like :

http://photo.net/photodb/photo?photo_id=6345050 or

http://photo.net/photodb/photo?photo_id=6303001,

which actually convey the "spirit" of this beautiful contry - and I wouldn't say the same about this one.

They are really beautiful and it would be such a waste if you decide to go the "extreme" HDR way.

A lot of people on this site produce very strange and (in my opinion) tasteless photos. This technique is really tricky so don't be fooled by it. Remember that less p-p is usually better.

Regards

Piotr

Hi Alfredo

Beautiful view from up there but I need to be honest with you.

The post-processing here is simply terrible.

Don't get it too personal but is's just my opinion. HDR (I guess it's HDR - isn't it ?) is a very complicated technique and it requires a lot of patience and experience to do it right. By "right" I mean some more natural "feel" that doesnt' look like computer generated landscape.

Regards

Piotr

Loch Eil, Lochaber, Scotland. Please have a look at the larger version.

Your comments/critiques much appreciated.

Czesc Mateusz

A to te slynne kolorowe wzgorza.

Zwykle widzialem je w duzo ciasniejszych kadrach

Tutaj natomiast mozna poczuc cala przestrzen - piekna sprawa.

Nie wiem tylko czy podzial proporcji 50/50 dobrze tu sluzy.

Moim zdaniem lekka zmiana mogla by wprowadzic wiecej "dynamiki"

Z drugiej zas strony niebo robi wrazenie - wiec szkoda by bylo go przycinac

Pozdrawiam

Beautiful shot Christophe

Very natural - first of all - which is unfortunately a rare thing on this site (lots of trashy hdr's are nowadays in lead)

Very well balaned composition and very well exposure handling.

Regards

Piotr

Hello Jeffrey

It's truly amazing place and I wish I was there :)

I, however, need to disagree with the previous comments.

Image quality is not the best thing about this photo.

First of all the lighthouse is completely burned-out and it unfortunately brings too much attention.

With such extreme exposures it's quite tricky to record everything properly. You'll need to use a differently exposed shot and work a bit with masks and layers.

Second thing is the water surpace on the left. Even though it's only ~700px photo I can clearly see some nasty colour noise there. A simple noise reduction would do the trick.

Finally - cadre.

I am not sure about your actual composition. I feel I miss a bit of a lower part of that huge cliff. Left side is not really interesting so maybe vertical shot would be better here ? (just guessing)

Hope you don't mind my critique but that's just the way I see your shot.

Regards

Piotr

Hello Mary

Very nice place for a morning photo session :)

I was about to go there last weekend but had to change plans and ended up in the Scottish Highlands.

Talking about your composition I like the fact how Sun and lighthouse balances each other. For a even better impact I wish there was a little bit more of the right side. Some gentle darkening of the sky part could also add more drama into this shot.

Beside that - very nice shot

Cheers, Piotr

Thanks for your comments guys.

I'm glad you like it.

Mike - I'm doing my best and it's something like a first photo that came out of my new camera. First impression is really good. Hope it won't let me down in the future :)

Ben & Robert - thx :)

Turnberry Lighthouse marks a dangerous part of the Ayrshire coast, off

which lies Bristo Rock which was responsible for many wrecks. The

Lighthouse was designed by Engineers David and Thomas Stevenson.

They examined the rock and reported on 18 May 1869 that it was

inadvisable to erect a lighthouse on the rock itself, but suggested that

the best place would be on Turnberry Point, where it now stands. It is

situated close to the 9th hole of Turnberry Golf Course in what was

once the moat of Turnberry Castle, which disputes with Lochmaben the

honour of being the birthplace of Robert Bruce (1274 -1329). Please

have a look at a larger version. Your comments/critiques much

appreciated !!!

Hello Simon

You know that I really enjoy your photos. You've got a very good eye for compositions but I need to be honest with you on this one.

First of all your composition looks a bit too crowded to my taste. There are so much compositional elements within the scene that it's a bit overwhelming. To make matters worse the technical side is not the best either. Deep shadows are completely washed out (which is especially visible on that big foreground rock).

The positive thing is the beautiful light that one can find in many shots of yours. Hope you don?t mind my critique here and keep on posting

Cheers, Piotr