I wanted to try to accentuate the light coming through the openings in the stones so I got down low and used the stones to shield the lens from the sun as I shot into it.
Canon 7D
16-35 @ 16mm
1/125
f22
ISO 400
EC -1.0
CPL used
HH, cloned out some blown highlights, s/h, levels adjustment, cropped from lhs and top, sharpened in CS5.
Hi Rachel, I liked how you handled the comp but have done some modifications to it. I can see some detail in the original and thought I might bring out a bit more. I selected the stone and applied S/H to it.
I did the same to the sky separately. I couldn't resist adding a small touch of warmth to the sky using the Nik warming filter. Another idea...
Thanks Dave. I debated bringing out more detail in the stones, there's a lot more in the RAW, but actually darkened them to accentuate the light coming through. Maybe it was a mistake, I'm still undecided. Curious what others think. I like what you did with the Nik filter.
Hi Rachel, One of my reasons for lightening the detail was the large neg space created on the center left if the area remained as a strong silhouette. I felt with more detail showing it negated the look...
Always tradeoffs I guess..
Hey Rachel,
I do think your op has merit.....but I would emphasize the light shafts/grasses even more.....similar to Dave's repost. I must admit I do like the bit more detail in his repost if I was to choose......but nice to have a few options. Glad to see you experimented with your time out there! Nicely done!
Rachel, I would try turning the stones totally black.
What little detail is brought out, to me, is not that interesting and a complete silhouette would be more interesting with the light and the sky.
Rachel, I really like your Stonehenge images, not completely sure, and don't know how big a crop you made, but think the silhouette look for this might work better if you pulled back some.
Thanks Dave, Roman, Dan and Brendan for the comments and suggestions, much appreciated. I'll have to play with this image a little more in PP to see what I like best.