Holiday Snaps

[alocky]

Hi everyone - took the opportunity for a break from work, threw the family in the car and went on a short driving holiday. Here's a couple of happy snaps from Wave Rock, and the Pinnacles. The skies at Hyden (Wave Rock) have to be some of the darkest I've ever seen.
Constructive comments welcome.
cheers,
Andrew

[jjjnettie]

beautiful images :)

[Octane]

The second image is remarkable.

I have to get out there one day...

Top shelf!

H

[alocky]

Thanks H and JJJ!
The second one also grabbed me - I don't really know why, but it feels like it's from another planet. I think it's the three rocks in the foreground, the alignment of Jupiter between the two pinnacles, none of which I noticed until after I looked at the picture.
Here's a link to the flickr upload.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/103316752@N02/10081852126/
cheers,
Andrew.

[gregbradley]

Yes I agree with H the 2nd one is the best.

Are you able to increase the contrast and sat a tad in the sky?

I think it works best because it has the strongest composition. The last one is similar but it doesn't hit it off as much because the triangular leaning from the centre of the MW feels unbalanced and a bit awkward. The first one the proportions are a tad off in that the landscape is almost 50% which is not a sweet spot geometrically. A usual formula (just guidelines really) is 1/3rd 2/3rds split between ladnscape and sky or vice versa or more precisely 38.2 and 61.8% (achievable in post processing if the original framing is close).
Roger posted a similar shot recently but in his one the leaning MW was counterbalanced by a large mass of rock on the left. The first one is quite nicely composed as well and feels balanced but a few lens issues there (coma) and exposure is a bit too low giving a green colour to the rock. Also the white balance temp seems a tad off - a bit too cool, giving that bluish background. But I like that one as well. This is just picking at it. You certainly have the great locations to image.

Greg.

[alocky]

Thanks Greg - I've had a bit more of a stretch. I probably should have stopped the polarie and taken a second image to get a sharper foreground. Next time - it's only a couple of hours north of Perth.

Funny you you metnion the cropping on the Wave rock photo. The original is exactly as you describe - but I cropped it to remove an inconveniently placed park bench.

[iceman]

Nice shots! I was just at the Pinnacles the other week, but just for the afternoon. Would've loved to have gone back at night but it was raining!

Well done!

[gregbradley]

Funny you you metnion the cropping on the Wave rock photo. The original is exactly as you describe - but I cropped it to remove an inconveniently placed park bench.[/QUOTE]

Why don't you try the content aware healing brush tool in PS CS5 and above? It works very well.

Greg.