The Trough of Bowland

[John 2]

A well known beauty spot in the fells above where I live. I've been up there several times recently to try and catch some Autumn colours but I'm told that unless we get a dry spell, the leaves may drop without fully turning.

Nikon D7100
18mm - 200mm Nikkor @ 40mm
1/320th Sec @ f8 ISO 250.

[batmura]

Terrific work, John. Excellent use of leading lines!

[dje]

Terrific work, John. Excellent use of leading lines!

+1 from me.

Dave

[Brownbear]

Stunning image of a beautiful vista.

[ajsmith]

Beautiful photo. I love the dramatic sky and the deep colors in the landscape.

[CBImages]

A lovely image John, you have given it a hard, gritty feel with your processing which really suits the stormy conditions. Usually 'sharpened' clouds look unnatural, I have yet to see 'sharp' clouds in reality, they are always soft edged even during storms but they really work in your image giving it a slightly surreal quality which I love.

I was really pleased to see an image from the Trough of Bowland on CiC as I'm moving up to Lytham in 2weeks time and this area will be on my doorstep, I have already bought an OS map of the area and started research for potential photo compositions. i was up in Lancashire earlier this week making some arrangements for my move and took a trip to Whitewell - exploring and I agree the area is stunning but not much autumn colour this year.

Looking forward to seeing more of your work for the area.

Chris

[John 2]

Thanks for all of your comments. In a good year, this area is a riot of colour but I guess there is time yet. Chris, the gritty finish on this is not deliberate although I'm glad you like it. I have noticed that both the D7100 (and the D7000 before it) produce a slightly gritty image under certain conditions. I'm not sure why - any one know? It's a pain in wild life shots but it might well be something I am doing. No one else using these cameras on the forum seems to suffer the same. As to the sharpening of the sky, I probably did sharpen it at some stage. The image is made up of two RAW files created in Adobe Raw in order to bring out some detail in what otherwise would have been an over exposed sky. I can't remember exactly how I processed the sky layer.

Thanks again for all of your comments.

[ShaneS]

Lovely image John. It really pops but I don't find it overly gritty when I look at it at full size in the light box.

[John 2]

Thank you Shane. I just wish there had been more autumn tints.

[AB26]

A great capture John. One of those to be published in the journal. It will make a great oil painting.

[John 2]

Thanks Andre. I don't generally think of my images hanging on a wall but I must admit it crossed my mind for this one.

[Tony M]

It's a beautiful shot John. I like the vibrance and variation of the colours of the vegetation. The green grass to the left and the yellow to the right of the winding road make it very interesting. Is that a dust spot in the upper left?

Tony

[CBImages]

Chris, the gritty finish on this is not deliberate although I'm glad you like it. I have noticed that both the D7100 (and the D7000 before it) produce a slightly gritty image under certain conditions. I'm not sure why - any one know?

Thanks again for all of your comments.

Do you shoot in RAW or JPG?

If the grittiness is an intermittent problem i.e. some images exhibit it when others don't it seems strange.

If you shoot RAW and JPG I could suggest that you might be selecting the JPG and processing/sharpening that file. As you know JPG's have already been processed and sharpened in camera and any further sharpening of them can induce a gritty appearance in them.

If this isn't the case then the only other idea I can think of is that you may have some pre-programmed settings being applied to your images when you import them.

It's difficult to guess without knowing more about the specifics.

If you would like to get in touch with me in a couple of weeks, when I'm up in Lytham I would be more than happy to take a closer look for you to try and resolve the problem.

Chris
Http://chrisbeard-images.com

[John 2]

Thanks Tony. Yes it is a dust spot and closer inspection reveals a few more. Time to get the sensor cleaning kit out.

Thanks Chris. No I never use JPGs. I shoot just RAW. I normally do not sharpen until I PP in CS6 even to the point of switching any sharpening in Adobe RAW. However I did tone map and I'm just wondering if I remembered to switch it off there. No matter, it is what it is.