Saddleworth Moor

[Stuart Hill]

A birder trying to improve his landscapes! Went out on to the bleak moors in Yorkshire, UK. Even in the middle of summer it's blowing a gale and quite cold.

Put through Topaz adjust (knocked right back), dodged and burn't using layer curves and masks and then toned.

Help and critique welcomed.

regards.
Stu.

D300 + Tamron 17-50mm 2.8

[Bob Miller]

Stuart....I think your fg is too complex.....You need one large nicely shaped triangular rock to pull the eye into the image...also the ruins need to be more prominent as they are probably most interesting element in the composition. I would position myself much closer to the ruins and then look for a power shape among the rocks for a foreground....get real close to that power shape with your widest angle lense

[Dave Mills]

Hi Stuart, Bob must be reading my mind since I was thinking the same thoughts. The foreground is very busy and overpowering making the ruins an afterthought.
As Bob mentioned I would have moved closer,found a simpler foreground(if possible) and made the ruins more dominant.
I might add some S/H to the clouds to make them stand out a bit more. I like the sepia tone which gives a sense of age...

[Roman Kurywczak]

Hey Stuart,
Bob and Dave made some excellent points on the FG......sometimes too much of a good thing can get too complicated. I do wonder if additional burning of the grasses would help or perhaps dodging some of the rocks more for another level of seperation......will try it if I get a chance. Looks like an excellent place to explore your landscapes!

[Stuart Hill]

Thanks for the help chaps. Agree Foreground way to busy. Was wondering why I it wasn't working for me. Rather than the ruins as an after thought though. My idea was to focus on the rocks, so the viewer then reads the image and realises they were once part of the house in the background. Roman, would be good to see a re-post, think you might have something.

Understand the comments about simplifying but here the UK, there seems to be a standard formula for landscapes which makes alot of images seem similar. Big rock/item in foreground, raking cloud patterns, rule of thirds. Was trying something different. Sometimes it works, sometimes not!

Will be back to the area to try again, maybe under different light and using you comments as a guide.

Once again, thanks for the help. Very much appreciated.
kind regards.
Stu.

[Stuart Hill]

A colour version of a similar view. Colours toned down. Want to give a feeling of the moors. Wild and harsh.

regards.
Stu.

[Roman Kurywczak]

Hey Stuart,
here is my attempt. I used a levels layer on the FG to darken and then a few levels layers to brighten and some selective dodging and burning.
I like the comp in the horizontal version....am debating the slight color but hope the repost shows you that you can also tweak this one selectively to further strengthen the impact.

[Stuart Hill]

Thats a lot more of the vision I had in my head than my original. Thanks Roman. Will have a crack at the hi-res image.

kind regards.
Stu.

[Robert Amoruso]

Stuart,

I like what Roman did. I find that with images like this; full of detail and appearing busy; B&W is a good treatment but only if you have good tonal separation and contrast. Almost to the point that it hurts the eyes. I once saw a photographers B&W landscape images that used this technique, lots of detail of rock strewn fields, rock faces, stuff like that. The contrast and tonal range created such a look that it hurt your eyes looking at it but I could not stop looking at it. If I could only remember his name. I like the second post of the larger landscape and find that very pleasing. I would suggest doing that as a B&W and posting it into a new thread.