The Bonnie Bonnie Banks

[Benjy]

Taken this morning with my new Sony A65.....

[Mike Buckley]

Such a beautiful scene; you live in a gorgeous part of the world.

Consider cropping the top to just above the cloud.

Though the sky is blue and the lake [edit: the loch ] is reflecting that color, trying adding just a touch of warmth to the shadow areas and the mountainous areas lacking snow. Those areas seem a bit too blue on my calibrated monitor. Whatever you do to those areas, be certain to also change the reflections of those areas.

[Bobobird]

Congrats on the new toy.

Fine image

[Donald]

That is indeed a very good one Bernard. It presents that scene very, very well.

I acknowledge Mike's comment about the blueness. I know that what you saw would have been exactly like that and it captures the coldness of the air that we've got at the moment (I was sitting outside for a couple of hours this afternoon watching dogs to agility work - and it was extremely cold). But I do think Mike's idea of, if you are able, to add some warmth into the sides of the Ben (that's 'mountain' for the non-Scots).

But, one to be proud of.

[Shadowman]

Very nice.

[Ken Curtis]

That is a beautiful scene you captured Bernard.

I suspect you might improve it a bit by making the mountain tops (ben tops?) more white. There is a bluish cast to the image. I don't know whether you use any software to post process your images, but I tried (with Photoshop's Selective Color adjustment) to remove the cyan from the white snow, and I reduced the cyan component and increased the yellow component of the cyan colors in the image. I think it looks more realistic, but of course, I was not there.

[Benjy]

Mike,Bobo,Donald,John, Ken,Thanks for viewing and helpful comments,much appreciated......PS. Mike,it,s a loch he he he

[Mike Buckley]

Mike,it,s a loch

Right you are. There is something that is more romantic about a loch than a lake. I don't know what it is, but it's true nonetheless. My post is now edited to reflect that important nuance.

[Downrigger]

That is indeed a very good one Bernard. It presents that scene very, very well.

I acknowledge Mike's comment about the blueness. I know that what you saw would have been exactly like that and it captures the coldness of the air that we've got at the moment (I was sitting outside for a couple of hours this afternoon watching dogs to agility work - and it was extremely cold). But I do think Mike's idea of, if you are able, to add some warmth into the sides of the Ben (that's 'mountain' for the non-Scots).

But, one to be proud of.

I agree. The blue in the light of cold clear winter is part of the beauty such scenes hold. Winter has always been special to me and the image I hold of a perfect winter day has deeply blued shadows. I would warm gently.

[Dave Humphries]

Hi Bernard,

I tend to agree with the comments above and you did lose some shadow detail in the red and green channels.

I hope you don't mind me posting my interpretation;



Levels adjustment to increase exposure (sorry, forgotten settings)
Colour balance adjustments;
Highlights: unchanged
Mid tones: +10 Red and -5 Blues
Shadows: -30 Blues
Local Contrast Enhancement with USM: 20% 250px 0
Crop
Local Dodge and Burn to recover shadow detail on right shoreline and tone down the by now too bright white buildings and gulls
Clone out a few half clouds at top right edge of frame

If you wish, I'll remove this edit, but leave the details.

I think you could do better still from the RAW original.

Hope that helps,

[Benjy]

Dave,thanks for viewing and the adjustments,I am a complete novice at photography and appreciate your comments,Ican see the difference in the two images...your a star thanks

[Mike Buckley]

Bernard,

Dave mentioned that he adjusted the levels to correct the exposure. Your photography will be dramatically improved and your post-processing time will be dramatically reduced if you regularly take just one easy step: look at your histogram after taking a shot like this. It will tell you whether the exposure is over, under or dead on. Once you see that, you can adjust your exposure as needed and then retake the shot as needed.

As an example, the histogram of your photo (and Dave's correction of the exposure) indicate to me that your photo is at least one stop underexposed. If you're not familiar with how to interpret the information provided in the histogram, CiC has excellent tutorials about that.

[Benjy]

Thanks again Mike,will need to check out histogram as I honestly don,t have a scooby about it cheers....

[Pentaxopithecus]

It makes m'heart long for a land and its people that I've come to love with a passion...
....That, my friend, says far more about your photograph than any piddling about with its colour temperature and tones.

Bob.

[Benjy]

Bob Thanks for viewing and comment....Haste Ye Back