Although there are stunning coastal rock formations in quite a few British locations and indeed Scotland has more than its fair share I do think Duncsnsby Head is very special. This is a particularly fine viewpoint where the stacks overlap a little but in truth without a long lens and the benefit of a flattened compressed view the stacks can appear less significant than they ought to be. At first the light was nothing special but as the sun got lower it escaped a bank of cloud and hot golden light bathed the two most dagger like structures. It might be difficult to discdern scale here but if you look carefully the little white dots adorning the cliffs are gulls, kittiwakes, fulmar, puffins and guillemots.
Pentax 67 II ,300mm lens,Fujichrome Velvia
0.6ND Hard Grad, f/16 at 2 Seconds.
Beautiful warm colors as the sunlight rakes those spires. The only really minor nit deals with that bit of white surf on bottom right. The surface of the sea has a really nice luminosity about it.
Not withstanding the obvious, warm light on the spires, what strikes me really is the nature story here. At first I was drawn (eye magnet) to the white spot in the LLC - then I dicovered all the white specs on the cliff - Wow, those are all nesting birds, gulls probably? (before I read your comments)
Overall the image is composed nicely. Not much to do about the haze/sea spray? deeper in to the frame which also may have flattened the sky a bit?
IMHO a greater nature story than grand seascape… but that’s just me.
I was curious about the white surf that Igor mentioned and had a close look at it. I don’t think that is what it is. I think it is the light coming from the sky on the other side of the arch projecting onto the rocks and water in front. The patch of light water and rocks seems to mimic the inverted arch. That said I think it could do with taming down the water brightness a wee bit.
I made a couple of minor adjustments to the points referenced. See what you think I’m not wholly convinced and there are limits to how much I can burn down the sky.
I’ll also vote for the second version. Toning down the spires and sky slightly lets the eye appreciate the shadowed areas a little more. Those are dramatic formations, and there’s a lot of power in the image. (I too love the “white spots” all over the rocks.)
Oh my, this is marvelous, the light on those towers is awesome. It looks like Luke Skywalker’s new home planet from the last Star Wars movie. I prefer the second re-worked image over the original. It may be an optical illusion, but the back two towers look like they are slightly leaning down to the right, do others agree ? It may may be an illusion caused by the cliffs in the background.
I also think you could slightly increase the highlight contrast in the rework for a little more pop. for illustration, here is a rework with a 0.7 degree CCW rotation (and CAF around the edges), and some added contrast in the bright highlights.
