Morfa Bychan, Wales

**viv1969** · 08-12-2008, 02:45 AM

The weather here has been so pants lately that I have resorted to looking through old photos which have never been edited.

This was taken in Wales at a place called Morfa Bychan, also known as Black Rock Sands. The hill is called Moel-y-Gest.

Oh yes.....allow me to hold my head in shame...this was taken on a borrowed D50. A very temporary sojourn to The Dark Side.

**marshall2** · 08-12-2008, 07:19 AM

Awesome sky, and very moody image Ruth. Nice composition, but I'm not sure If I like the empty space above the clouds. I really like the B&W conversion too.

**imagesbytlp** · 08-12-2008, 07:55 AM

Ruth, love this image. The composition is really nice...the clouds are powerful and the tones are excellent. How did you do your conversion?

**alanw** · 08-12-2008, 08:12 AM

Originally Posted by viv1969

Oh yes.....allow me to hold my head in shame...this was taken on a borrowed D50. A very temporary sojourn to The Dark Side.

So that's why this picture looks so much better than your others.

Seriously, I really like the clouds in this shot. Very nice capture and conversion.

**viv1969** · 08-12-2008, 08:15 AM

Thanks guys.

Terri, I use Paint Shop Pro. All I do is desaturate, then tinker with the curves and levels. There's a little selective burning and dodging of the clouds and PSP has a pretty good noise reduction function too.

I simply cannot get to grips with Photoshop. I think I need someone to physically sit down with me and show me rather than reading tutorials. I would love to be able to PP using all the joys of layers etc (which I know I can do in PSP as well btw) but at the moment I have to keep my PP simple as I just don't have the knowledge.

Brad, I tried a crop without the clear sky at the top of the image, but you lose the scale of the cloud formation without that hard edge. Scroll the image up the screen...you'll see what I mean

**viv1969** · 08-12-2008, 08:19 AM

Originally Posted by alanw

So that's why this picture looks so much better than your others.

Haha!!! Alan doen't make me come over there and hurt you!
Seriously, I is a nice camera, but it just didn't feel good in my hands and I think it's important to be comfortable with the hardware. My Canon feels like an extension of my arm!

Thanks for the comment...I still like the clouds in my Stonehenge picture better (in my gallery)

**marshall2** · 08-12-2008, 09:16 AM

I see what you mean, Ruth. The shot just doesn't feel right without it.

**yellalablady** · 08-12-2008, 11:57 AM

What a great shot, Ruth. Have you tried cropping out the narrow dark line at the bottom? When I scrolled so I couldn't see that band, I didn't mind the area above the clouds as much. I think our eyes want to divide the photo up into too many parts with natural division lines in this photo. Either way, it's a great photo.

**aaronshore** · 08-12-2008, 04:31 PM

The dark side comes through all the time!!! I love this shot. For some reason B&W always makes me feel good.

**Azimuth** · 08-12-2008, 09:35 PM

Nice one Ruth, love those soft clouds they look like a painting.
The only small thing I don't like is the top cloud in the middle that is blown, I'm not familiar with P.S.P. but if it has a cloning tool you could easely bring back some detail there.

Cheers

Leo