Rubjerg Knude lighthouse (Denmark)

[Jerry van Dijk]

Going through some old images, I came across this image of Rubjerg Knude lighthouse in Denmark. It's located on a very dynamic coastal area and is slowly being devoured by the moving sand of the dunes. The houses that used to surround it have already been destroyed. The lighthouse itself is still completely intact, but this image shows what might be awaiting in the quite near future.

D7000, Nikkor 16-85 @32mm, handheld, ISO-100, f/16, 1/80.
Minor PP work in ACR. Cloned out 2 people and LOADS of dust bunnies from sand grains.

[Diane Miller]

Very nice perspective and an interesting story of impending doom conveyed by the image (even without the explanation). I love this sort of graphic image. The clouds add a lot. I almost hate to mention it, but the horizon is a bit crooked.

[Jerry van Dijk]

Seems you're right Diane! Missed that, so I'm actually glad you mention it! I straightened the image based on the tower, but neglected to look at the horizon afterwards. Some perspective correction seems to be needed here.

[Rachel Hollander]

Hi Jerry - Very nicely done. Agree about the horizon but an easy fix.

TFS,
Rachel

[Diane Miller]

I'll often do an Edit > Transform > Distort to fix something in a corner without too much effect on the main part of the image, but unless this is a crop from the bottom you don't have room to push that corner up. Cloning the sand could be tricky to preserve the very interesting patterns. I'd copy the water to a new layer and rotate it to level and carefully mask to make it fit. Curious what others would do.

[Andrew McLachlan]

Hi Jerry, love the sand and the lighthouse...any chance you could have gotten some separation between the lighthouse and the cloud...with the lighthouse in the lower right and the cloud in the upper left?

[Don Railton]

Hi Jerry, A very pleasing image.. I am with Andrew on a bit of seperation being preffered between cloud and top of lighthouse.

Don

[Jerry van Dijk]

Thanks Andrew and Don, I agree that would have made the image stronger. I think I didn't really pay attention to the clouds. It was very crowded,msonI was concentrating on getting as few people in the frame as possible. I was also very distracted by the sandblast me and my equipment were getting. This dune is really on the move!

[Morkel Erasmus]

I really like how the lighthouse peeks from behind the dune.
Some good suggestions given above already. Nice soft feel and happy emotion coming from this one.

[Jerry van Dijk]

Diane, I found an easier way to fix this. I selected a small rectangle on the water, taking care not to select any sand. I feathered the edge to hide my tracks. I then used Edit > Transform > Perspective and dragged the UR corner of my selected rectangle down, thereby lifting the horizon up. Because I used the selection, no other parts (including the sand below the water) were affected by the correction. So no cloning or careful layer blending were needed afterward. Here's the result:

[Diane Miller]

That worked well! I don't mind the cloud where it is -- it seems to be coming from the lighthouse.