The Climb
Description
This is a nice one I pulled out from a trip to Pontneddfechan in South Wales. There’s another version I edited up on flickr, but sadly the original had serious issues to begin with since I shot this in .JPG mode. Still, I quite like the angle of this shot so it’s worth sharing for that I think.
One lesson I’ve firmly learned is that without fail I must use RAW mode than ever resort to using .JPG mode. Now, I’m not sure what the quality is like on DSLRs, but on the FujiFilm S9600 the compression is terribly noisy. It might sound like a n00b mistake, but there were a couple of reasons why I still shot in .JPG mode:
1. Memory space.
2. Uncertainty in handling the camera in various conditions
The second combined with the first meant that until recently, I got into the bad habit of shooting wildly. I’m sure you know what I mean by that statement, and it’s enough to say these days after a fair bit of reading and reflection that I need to give more consideration to the shot before I take it. That’s something that has only very recently changed, perhaps since summer. Even now when I’m shooting in RAW I usually use up the space pretty quick if I’m not careful, so I’ll be picking up extra memory soon. I’m also more comfortable using the RAW editor in Photoshop these days, and it can’t be denied that the options provided via this are huge compared to adjustment-layer editing in JPG mode.
So on to the shot itself, and with a little experimentation and thought I think I got something I’m happy with for now. I intentionally blurred an overlay of this image and reduced the opacity to bring up the blacks and give the image an idyllic glaze. There were a few other things I altered in several Adjustment Layers, such as bringing down the saturation somewhat, but the Gaussian blur is something I like to do to soften up the image if a high contrast is required.
This is one I’ll want to try nailing again, and I’m sure I will.