My first commissioned work - Black Combe from Kirksanton

[iangreenhalgh1]

A few weeks ago I had a small exhibition of my work and a lady asked me to shoot a specific picture for her. She wanted a panoramic view of the mountain (well, big hill, it's 25ft short of mountain) Black Combe which overlooks the town of Millom where I live. She lives in a house on the lower slopes of the Combe and wanted the picture to include her house - you can see it about a third of the wat into the frame from the left, painted white.

5 shots stitched, Hexanon 1.4/50 on NEX-3.

[David]

That's fabulous work. It may be the best image I've yet seen from you. Well done. That's definitely an image to be proud of.

[iangreenhalgh1]

Cheers David, I was lucky with the light, very dramatic.

[Attila]

[ChromaticAberration]

[pich900]

I believe she will be happy with the result, you had a great light and you've got here a very nice image!

[patrickh]

Well done Ian. I hope you get more commissions from it


patrickh

[Gurdie]

Impressive! Congrats!

I think the jet vapour trails add an element to the picture - permanent vs short-lived, ancient vs. current.

[visualopsins]

Well to be honest the result from the effort put forth is very good but I think you can do much better.

There's a great scene, spectacular. Well framed. Good lighting. There are a lot of distracting stitching artifacts, but otherwise it is well photographed.

I think there is a phenomenal photo here not yet made. Different time of day perhaps. With even more dramatic sky. Perhaps with sunlight beaming onto the house & surrounding land. The smaller hill behind the house might be sunlit. From different angle perhaps. The scene has a lot of potential for some really spectacular photos -- the hard part is being there at the right time to make them. With luck, there will be many such moments. Go there often & get them all!

The scene is so complex. I'm sure from studying the photo you've noticed new details in the terrain not noticed before. Learn all the details by making many more photos in many different light. It takes a long time to get to know a subject like this well, establish rapport, show in best lights -- it takes years and years, the scene is never quite the same, always changing.

[iangreenhalgh1]

Thanks guys.

It's tricky to find the right viewpoint as the land to the south of the Combe is all flat, if there was a rise in the ground I could get up I'd try shooting from there, but there isn't sadly.

I was thinking of trying again in the morning so the light is coming from the right, not the left, then I ca give the client a couple of options to choose between.

Can you point out the more obvious stitching artifacts and I'll try to fix them with a bit of clone stamping.

[poilu]

nice one, will be great on a wall !

[iangreenhalgh1]

Cheers Poilu.

I've made the sky bluer and done a little bit of clone stamping on the grass in the foreground:

[visualopsins]

The artifacts I see are most evident in the close foreground field -- they almost look like reflections of the hills on water, or clouds shading parts of the field.

[skida]

I think your customer will be delighted with the photo. I like the dramatic sky and the shadows on Black Combe. I think the subject lends itself to many great photos at different times and with different light, but it is easy to be too (self)critical and never be satisfied. I would love that hanging on my wall.

[iangreenhalgh1]

I'll see what I can do with the grass, should be able to even it out a bit.

Cheers Skida, I often find it hard to assess my own shots.

[Yebisu]

Very nice and not too strong on the HDR.

I noticed the stiching artifacts in the grass too. Might be tricky to deal with.

[hoanpham]

Very nice work. I haven't time to look at it until now.

[iangreenhalgh1]

Cheers.

I think the problem with the grass was due to the wind, the grass was blowing about and looked different shades depending on which direction it was facing.