The photographer is looking for generalized feedback about the aesthetic and technical qualities of their image.
Description
Duncansby Head, Caithness, Scotland.
Devilishly difficult for me to get down to anymore, mainly due to a snapped Achilles heel, and it’s probably now made off limits on the grounds of health and safety. This tricky descent to the sea floor at the base of the Duncansby cliffs to view the dagger shaped stacks is quite a wonderful viewpoint. I loved the red sandstone rock and the soft stormy light, though I had to use some very judicious filtering with a combination of ND grads and a slight turn of a polariser to control reflected light. Why, well this was shot on my old Pentax 67II a few years back and the dynamic range of Fuji Velvia film is barely 5 stops. The old steam driven SLR reflex still occasionally gets to come out and play, mainly because I have around 50 rolls of Fuji Velvia 50 120 film to use up, and secondly because I like the sound it makes when you fire the shutter causing every bird for a hundred metres to launch themselves skyward, and that’s with the mirror locked up.
Specific Feedback
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Technical Details
Pentax 67II, P67 55-100 zoom lens, Polariser approx 50% strength, 0.6ND Rev Grad + 0.6 ND Soft Grad, f/29 at 2 Seconds, Fuji Velvia 50 film. (ISO 40). Single exposure on film. hyperfocally focussed.
Critique Template
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Outstanding work as always. I love the limpets in a line on the foreground rock. Its such a subtle but wonderful element. Those dagger sea stacks are amazing and I would thin well worth the effort of getting down to the water level for them. Good ol Velvia 50 never fails to impress with its color palette.
Thankyou Youssef. I still enjoy getting the old Pentax 67II up and running again, even if it is for the occasional outing. Velvia colours are wonderful especially when it is a little more overcast. Somehow or other it Velvia still coms down on the right side of reality in most situations. Where as the digital equivalent of it just doesn’t.
I really enjoy this photo. There is a marked pull from the lower part of the foreground along the lines of limpets and reddish rocks, into the shattered boulders in the water in the middle ground, leading all the way to the two spiky mountains at the top of the frame, and beyond. The visual flow is strong.
This is a great classic landscape that makes me want to descend to that wonderful rock platform myself. It is no mean feat to handle such high contrast with Velvia, but you managed it very well.
The composition and depth of field are also excellent, with the beautiful line of limpets and the colourful seaweeds to explore in the foreground, and the cliffs that can be followed with great clarity, receding into the far distance. For the viewer, it creates a magical feeling of standing there in place of the photographer and enjoying this grand landscape. Well done Ian!!
Well, in fact everything has been said already.
A wonderful image, and the lined-up limpets are the cherry on the cake. Great depth, great detail everywhere. Apparently even medium format can be sharp everywhere with f/29
