Rhodes memorial

[Neilmac50]

Taken Saturday at Rhodes memorial, Cape Town, I liked the contrast with the statue against the sky and clouds and prefered the b&w conversion done with Nik Silver EfexPro. Neil

[IzzieK]

Neil -- lovely shot! A bit too sharp for comfort but the composition is great -- with the position of the sun and hand of the statue, it is a beautiful of someone (thing?) protecting itself from the glare of the sun...how cute is that?!

[Stagecoach]

A powerful image Neil and great background for it. Perhaps toning the sharpening down a bit to reduce the halos on the edges may be a help.

Grahame

[Neilmac50]

I've had a quick re-edit reducing the sharpness of the statue, not sure if there is much difference? Its of Cecil Rhodes, Prime Minister of South Africa from 1890 to 1896 by the way Izzie.

[Mike Buckley]

Nice concept, Neil. Did you try using flash to brighten the statue?

[Neilmac50]

Hello Mike,you might be surprised to know that I do not own a flash so that option was out, I did take a bracketed shot from a different angle which I combined as a HDR but this didn't include the sun in it.

[Manfred M]

Neil - I find that the statue is far too dark, versus the background. Typical back-lit exposure problem, to get the statue to look "right" you are either going to have to pump in some light (as per Mike's suggestion). You could try something in post using multiple exposures and blending them.

Unless you find some way of pumping in more light, you are going to end up with an image that is too dark or one with a decently exposed statue with a blown out background.

[Shadowman]

Nicely done.

[Scouse]

I like the shot a lot and I understand what you were trying to accomplish.


Oh yeh, and I have heard of Cecil Rhodes...

[Neilmac50]

I wanted the B&W version to be purposely dark, here is the colour version with the exposure being more 'normal'.

[Mike Buckley]

Thanks for sharing your color version. I converted it using a purple filter to create a bright sky. That's because the combination of a bright sun and dark sky doesn't make sense to me, especially when at this angle the rider seems to be using his right hand to shade his eyes from the sun. I then adjusted the curve. It makes a quite nice image, though very different from your treatment.

[dedro]

very nice Neil...good stuff!

[IzzieK]

Neil I appreciate the new info. I look forward to seeing more of your shots, too.

[ShaneS]

Neil;

I agree with Izzie and she nailed my first impression of the image when she wrote:

the composition is great -- with the position of the sun and hand of the statue, it is a beautiful of someone (thing?) protecting itself from the glare of the sun

I would be interested in seeing a 'brighter' monochrome version of the shot.

[Neilmac50]

Shane here is a lighter version for your interest. Neil

[IzzieK]

I prefer the dark one, Neil...it has a veil of mystery to the shot...the mood was perfect there...just my (inflated) 10 cents opinion...

[Neilmac50]

I have to agree with you Izzie,it is my prefered version as of course you would expect!

[ShaneS]

Neil, I have a slight preference for the dark one as the ominous feeling of the rider trying to see through the sun is more prevalent in that one. I wonder if you could selectively brighten the horse horse and rider in that one just a tad...as usual I sit on the fence

Regardless, I'm not sure I would have seen that composition and applaud you for the vision to capture it.

[bnnrcn]

Very nice shot indeed Neil I like the dark and less sharpened version (#2). Brightening doesn't work for this image, it is nice as is.