Moonrise Tréduder

H

Helen Summers

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I got very lucky the other day when this scene presented itself in front of me. I thought the heavy shower cloud was rather spectacular, then it moved away slightly and the moon rose above it. I still can't believe how every thing came together. These things usually only happen when I don't have my camera.

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Thanks Ian. Yes, and by my experience so far, I suspect I will be having as many goes at this as AA did with his. No matter how I try I just can't get the image to look as I envision it should look. The above is the best of a not quite there bunch. Although perhaps it is fine after all, but because I have spent so much time playing with it I have lost my way. Oh well that is photography I suppose. I think I need to leave it alone for a while and come back to it when my vision for the image has re focussed.
 
Helen Summers said:
Thanks Ian. Yes, and by my experience so far, I suspect I will be having as many goes at this as AA did with his. No matter how I try I just can't get the image to look as I envision it should look. The above is the best of a not quite there bunch. Although perhaps it is fine after all, but because I have spent so much time playing with it I have lost my way. Oh well that is photography I suppose. I think I need to leave it alone for a while and come back to it when my vision for the image has re focussed.
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I have literally spent a day trying to get an edit right before now so I sympathise.

are you using Martins contrast grading method? If not try it!
 
Thanks DF. it is not a problem with the editing software. To start with I had a pretty clear idea of what the final image should look like. But then I started to faff around with it making several versions trying to get the optimum version. By the time I had finished I simply lost my way and couldn't decide what was best.
 
Helen Summers said:
Thanks DF. it is not a problem with the editing software. To start with I had a pretty clear idea of what the final image should look like. But then I started to faff around with it making several versions trying to get the optimum version. By the time I had finished I simply lost my way and couldn't decide what was best.
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yeah I often do that!

walk away and come back to it a fresh. I often start over.

I find George Dewolfes suggestions in his books really helpful in that regard and in case you haven't used Martins method its worth look
 
Digital Finger said:
yeah I often do that!

walk away and come back to it a fresh. I often start over.

I find George Dewolfes suggestions in his books really helpful in that regard and in case you haven't used Martins method its worth look
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I had not previously heard of George Dewolfe, though somehow I think I should have. I looked him up and found a couple of interesting articles. I think I shall get a couple of his books in due course depending on availability. So thanks for that DF. As for Martins method I am not a photoshop user, not for any particular reason, I just happen to use a different software that I am happy with. Thanks for taking the trouble to respond to my post.
 
Ah, since I wrote the above, I have since discovered that George Dewolfe uses photoshop which is not relevant for me. None the less, I found his article on composition in luminouslandscape.com interesting.
 
Sorry I didn't realise you didn't have photoshop. :eek: Whilst you'd need Ps to do exactly what Martin suggests in his method I still think it is worth watching even without Ps because what I learned most from it was not so much the technicality [of using curves and levels in layers and painting on a mask] but rather the overall approach at looking at contrast selectively.
 
Well here we go. I have looked at this image again having deliberately avoided looking at it for a couple of weeks. So this is the final edit, until I change my mind again. Hopefully it is better than the previous two which were both, in hindsight a little muddy. If this doesn't work I am definitely going to try the Martini method. Have you done a tutorial on it Bill:)

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Research is ongoing. :cool:

Nice image and the cloud effect is excellent. The white houses just give it a lift. The moon is nicely captured as well.
 
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The sky is amazing. I take the opposite stance to Bill on the houses, I find them untidy and distracting. Personally I would crop the land out altogether and treat it as an abstract!
 
Thank you very much for your comments everyone. They are really appreciated and welcome even when I don't always agree. I am happy with the composition as it is. The problem is my title I think. I was trying to show the awesome scale of nature, and I feel the inclusion of the village emphasises that. With hindsight, I wish my foresight was as good as my hindsight, I think that perhaps I should have gone for the longer winded but more precise, "Clearing Storm with Moon Rising, over Tréduder." It just goes to show how important it is to give an image the right title.

Incidentally, I have tried excluding the landscape in an early edit, but the image then turned into an image of a cloud with a small Moon and there wasn't much sense of the scale that I was after. I think if the Moon was rather larger in the frame an image of just the Moon floating above the clouds would have worked rather well.
 
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It is that image again. I still haven't been able to decide what version I prefer, but I have had another go at realising it which is below. I think this is a better version but.... what does everyone else think? As always your thoughts are welcome though I can't promise to agree or even act on them, but I might. I want to have this image printed big say 30" x 24" and probably by Ilford. Their Lambda laser prints onto proper photographic paper are amazing for ultimate quality, so I really want to get it right.

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Helen Summers said:
It is that image again. I still haven't been able to decide what version I prefer, but I have had another go at realising it which is below. I think this is a better version but.... what does everyone else think? As always your thoughts are welcome though I can't promise to agree or even act on them, but I might. I want to have this image printed big say 30" x 24" and probably by Ilford. Their Lambda laser prints onto proper photographic paper are amazing for ultimate quality, so I really want to get it right.

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It looks great on the screen, you should probably try soft proofing with a calibrated monitor (sensible brightness) and an equivalent paper profile. My own experience suggests this is particularly critical for matte paper stock when the dynamic range of the paper is lower than screens. Glossy paper stock with good Dmax for the blacks needs less soft proofing optimisation. If all of this is too complex its best to choose a value added printer rather than one chosen for cost.
 
My tuppence: on the screen at least, I prefer the 3rd version. The fourth makes the foliage and houses look overcooked to me. If I were being picky, I would say somewhere between 2 and 3 is the most appealing. As for how a print would look, I defer to Ian S, although one way to do it is to print an 8" x 10"area of the 30"x 24" onto 8" x 10" stock, preferably using the same paper and printer you intend for the final print. You can then see the effect for yourself before committing to the larger size.

Regarding the title, I would think for a moon rise the moon should be closer to the horizon. I realise when saying this that Ansel Adams' version is also high in the sky. Perhaps I am being picky. When it comes to titles, in my view short is best. Something like "Moon rising over Treduder" would address both concerns.
 
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