Dunino Den

Hi, just been exploring around me.

Dunino den is a small celtic site about 5miles from my uni. The site is covered in carvings in the trees and stones and has a strange eery quality to it. Def. worth a visit to anyone in the fife area.

Here are a few pics, comments and criticism welcome, (exexpt for the last one, which i really like )

[IMG]http://www.pentaxforums.com/forums/members/fra-zzr-albums-dunino-den-picture1971-imgp2430-edit.jpg[/IMG]


[IMG]http://www.pentaxforums.com/forums/members/fra-zzr-albums-dunino-den-picture1970-imgp2386.jpg[/IMG]

[IMG]http://www.pentaxforums.com/forums/members/fra-zzr-albums-dunino-den-picture1969-imgp2382-edit.jpg[/IMG]

[IMG]http://www.pentaxforums.com/forums/members/fra-zzr-albums-dunino-den-picture1968-imgp2368.jpg[/IMG]

[IMG]http://www.pentaxforums.com/forums/members/fra-zzr-albums-dunino-den-picture1967-imgp2347.jpg[/IMG]

The last one is clearly the best! The first one doesn't do anything for me, the others could be (IMHO as always) be improved by a little cropping, e.g., the second one could loose a bit of the OOF highlights to the left.

Best wishes, Kris.

Then last one is as you say terrific but the blown out sky does it no favours The figure does give it a real boost. The focus isn't quite right though IMO - good to be on rock but it seems a little muddled.

Number three for me with some extra PP to give it more bite and rein in the background. But is it in focus, really in focus and is it sharp?

Mike

Hi thanks for the comments. Had a fair bit of trouble sorting highlights and blown out areas in a few photos from that day, something i need to be aware of in future. Unfortunatly i dont think No.3 is in focus, i was getting ahead oh myself and dont think i was letting the SR sort itself out before shooting.. real shame.

Thanks again

Fraser

The histogram is your friend!

K.

But number 4 would have been hard in nay case wouldn't it?

Do you mean five? Yes, I guess the range would have been too much unless you used a little bit of fill-in flash and that would be difficult to get looking natural. One might compromise and allow some burning out of the highlights then bringing up the foreground in PP. Not sure how many times that young lady would be prepared to scamper up and down the stairs though while one tried to get it technically correct. As it is, despite its technical imperfections, I rather like it

My comment was intended to be more general, i.e., use the histogram to avoid burnt out highlights (and at least you can quickly see when the dynamic range is too large for the sensor).

Best wishes, K.

I did mean the last one of course. I suspect that the stone face would take some underexposure and then a boost in PP, being a bit darker might make it more intense and the under exposure ought to help with the sky. I'm sure our man has a silver tongue and would be able to persuade the young lady to scamper up and down the steps a few times (provided he didn't mention she would be but a blur)

Mike

I think you're right. The grainy nature of the rock face would probably cope with a little bit of noise. I wonder what a BW conversion would look like?

K.

Hi, glad this has sparked a bit of interest. Have just started using lightroom so still getting used to it. Had a go at correcting the highlights with little success, will have a try at B/W in a bit

ok, didnt really like how B/W worked out so here is another version. The highlight correction is abit quick'n'dirty but was struggling to imporve on it :

Hi, glad this has sparked a bit of interest. Have just started using lightroom so still getting used to it. Had a go at correcting the highlights with little success, will have a try at B/W in a bit

I prefer the original. Great composition - just a shame about the blown sky and focusing, as Mike says (though I think the latter's more serious - one's allowed to blow a sky every so often as long as it's incidental to the main subject:wink.

Not so keen on the others. You don't quite pull it off in these. But at the very least they're all interesting. Keep on experimenting, I say.

I agree whole-heartedly. You clearly have a good eye for unusual angles and compositions which is worth cultivating. K.