some pics of bluebell hill

hello peeps!

up early the other morning to try getting some images of dawn on bluebell hill (not it's real name) near Port Talbot. The sky was just magic!

I'm pleased with these but I'd like your honest opinions please.




(above) This one heavily tweaked in LR, high contrast applied.





(above) Pleased to capture the crepuscullar rays and shadows, just caught the tinge of bluebells all the way up the hillside.






(above) use the long end of the DA 50-200 for this one, it was a bit bland but an accidental tweak in LR made a much more intense image.

I like the first one a lot, though I might crop a tad off the foreground. The second one I would crop to just below the patch of bluebells so that the sky is more the focus of the photo instead of all the boring grass in the foreground as it is now. The third one is an interesting effect. It certainly shows up the bluebells well.

Thanks for the input Gwyn. I might crop the second, I'm unsure whether to show the hill and the sky, or mainly the sky.

Very nice, like the clouds in the first shot. the light comes through the clouds in such a nice way. Looks very dark on my screen, had to change calibration. normally have it set to my printer's colour profile.

I like the composition of the first one best, I would maybe try to lighten the darker area on the right a bit though.

Tyr: The images probably are dark, I'm tending towards dark high contrast at the moment.

McBrian: I had initially cropped out part of the right side, but decided I liked the flowers in the corner, maybe not worth keeping them in if the balance isn't right?

In which case, sky is great but a lot of detail is lost in the foreground which is a shame. Still, it isn't always possible to get all the details, just seems a bit too dark in my opinion.

In the first image there is a lot of foreground detail, in particular there are a few foxglove's that are quite light, the bluebell flowers are light and I get highlights on the grass. There is a great deal of detail, the foreground isn't 'blocked up' in any way, at least not on my system

As is said, it is likely to be my screen setup.

is it just me or does the WB seem too blue? I don't think my monitor is that far off. Other than that, I like the top one very much.

thanks for that!

I leave the camera on auto WB most of the time and shoot raw. I've not touched the WB in any of the images.

Just thought I'd come back to this thread after re-calibrating my monitor to a FujiFilm Frontier 370 RGB Laser Photo Printer. Wonderful sky in the first and no loss of detal on the hill (I can see it now ). Love the Third picture though

Glad you like them, glad you got your monitor calibrated too.