Hercules Bay, South Georgia

[Jay Gould]

Since I posted The Encounter http://birdphotographers.net/forums/showthread.php?t=56529 today, I decided to also post an image showing where it occurred: in the lower left corner of the beach.

This landscape was shot several hours after The Encounter after we had returned to the ship.

I couldn't decide whether to post here or in the Travel Forum as a few of the images in the Travel Forum I believe should be in this Forum. Since I seek critiques I posted here.

The red spots in the center of the image are the people in the last Zodiak to depart the beach.

Camera: 5D2
Capture date/time: 8 Jan 10; 10:40am
Light condition: sun starting to break through the clouds
Lens: 24-105 f/4
Focal length: 55mm
Distance: 650m
Extender: none
Tube: none
Flash/Comp: no;
ISO: 500
Exp Prog: Av
Speed: 1/50 sec
Aperture: f/14
Exp Comp: + 2/3
Metering: Evaluative
WB: Auto
AF Drive: One Shot; single frame
Tripod: no
Filter: Singh Ray Color Intensifier
Crop: minimal
Processed in LR 3 (beta) and then resized in CS4 - plus Pixel Genius Sharpening.
All C&Cs gratefully appreciated!

[Dave Mills]

Hi Jay, Interesting composition with a good representation of the terrain and a minimalization of an uninteresting sky. I probably wouldn't have noticed the small red spots if you hadn't pointed them out. In previous posts you mentioned you were faced with overcast lighting for most of the trip which is a fact we all deal with from time to time.
I previously mentioned a GND which also might have been useful here also. In order to show what it might have done I went to the GND filter in NIK filters and worked the upper half which I felt needed darkening and a bit more contrast.
Due to the low res the sky in places is a bit funky. I'm enjoying seeing where you were....

[Jay Gould]

Dave, you gave me an interesting way to look at it. Using the LR gradient tool I put the filter only on the sky and the mountain peaks to include all of the sky. It then removed all brightness which brought out the blues and darkened the tops of the mountains. I sent it to PS and using Nik Vivezia I covered the area below the mountains and decreased brightness and increased contrast and a bit of saturation. Finally I put a series of small Vivezia circles along the mountain tops and increased brightness to overcome the LR "suck of light". I have to remove some artifacts from the upper right hand corner that appeard when I "sucked out the brigtness.

What do you think?

[Dave Mills]

Hi Jay, definately got rid of the haziness in the image and added interest to the sky.Definate improvement!!
I might back off on the saturation just a little bit...not much (my taste)

[Kobus Tollig]

Great place and nice shot well done. Your second post is much better