Springtime in the Highlands of Scotland

[Donald]

Earlier today I wrote in another thread, here, that whilst in the far north-west of Scotland last week, I tried really, really hard to 'see' images in other than B & W and square. I wanted to force myself to 'see' in other ways.

It proved to be enormously difficult. I have trained myself to 'see' compositions and images square and in B & W. Trying to 'see' in other ratios and in colour does require a deal of mental shifting. The same applies moving between genres. But it's always a good way of learning and training ourselves to make good images. If we can remain our own harshest critic (not always easy) we should avoid too many disasters.

So please feel free to critically assess this and give your opinion as to its merit.

[Wavelength]

i feel this looks Majestic !!!

[Cantab]

Donald, the image works wonderfully AND conveys a wonderful sense of spring (almost!).

I was curious about the focal length you used and saw in the EXIF you used the 100-400 mkII zoom at 100. I'd been curious whether this was a landscape shot with a wide angle lens.

In pp, did you remove colour from the mountain and cloud or is that the way it was?

[Daisy Mae]

I have problems with the meeting of foreground and background. They seem disjointed. Like there may be a chasm down there.

For me..the wider angle .. ( and i am glad to see you shooting at a different aspect ratio)..really requires a tree..a rock...something in the mid ground to make the composition work.

As it is..it lacks impact.

[Donald]

In pp, did you remove colour from the mountain and cloud or is that the way it was?

I can't claim that's the way it was because, of course, I did post processing. But in terms of colour, that is essentially how it was. It was a cold, wet, windy day (we have a word for that - Dreich) and contrast was very low. The snow has been lifted a bit to whiten it and, hopefully, give it a bit more 'oomph'.

But what you see here is what I saw in my mind as I looked at the scene.

I have problems with the meeting of foreground and background. They seem disjointed. Like there may be a chasm down there.

For me..the wider angle .. ( and I am glad to see you shooting at a different aspect ratio)..really requires a tree..a rock...something in the mid ground to make the composition work.

As it is..it lacks impact.

A tree! As you know, we're in Caithness and Sutherland here. There ain't no trees!
Seriously, thank you for that considered response. That's the sort of comment I need on images like this.

[James G]

Donald, for me, the essence of this image is in the mountain and the sky. There is a moody drama which I quite like,as befits the weather.
You are experimenting with new ratios and I think you might find it interesting to 'try' a more extreme letterbox style. I would crop from the bottom removing much of the foreground, retaining the two rocky outcrops on the far right and left of the image. Basically leaving just enough to 'ground' the image . (sorry no pun intended ..)
I think that the more extreme crop might also address, in part Sharon's issue regarding the chasm.

[Round Tuit]

Donald,

I think that this crop works really well but I agree with Sharon that the foreground is disconnected from the scene. It almost looks like a composite of a B & W shot of the mountain and a colour shot of the foreground and I don't think that a different crop that includes the foreground in the shot would fix the disconnect. I am not sure that a foreground object would be sufficient to unite the two parts either. Since there is practically no colour in the sky or the mountain, the only solution that I can think of would be to convert the whole shot to B & W.

Sorry, as it stands, this does not work for me.

André

[Barbara Ponder]

Ditto to Sharon and Andre.

[Shadowman]

Nicely captured.

[zkogut]

I really like the clouds in this. For some reason when I see a cloud or fog enveloping a mountain it just looks plain cool. Nicely done.
Btw, my wife and I are planning a Scotland/Ireland trip soon. Such gorgeous countries from the looks of it.

Sent from my Nexus 6P using Tapatalk