Trossachs

OK, took me about 20-30 minutes to do but I think i've done not bad for a very first attempt (even if I do say so myself - prepares to get flamed... )

Nice job. The only tiny area that looks a bit odd is the horizon about a1/4 of the way from the left. Just a suggestion of a halo. Insignificant really......... but when Les sees it he will repost the pic with a big red arrow pointing to it!

Well .......... that's what he did to one of mine!


As for the pic generally - I like the colours but the composition would be improved by cropping a bit off the bottom (just enough to lose those green leaves) IMHO.

Cheers Mike,

You've spotted the two areas I had noticed myself, but impatiance to post my handy work took over and well I couldn't be bovered, as they say...

Should have know that there was no chance of sneaking it past you lot......

Still think I could lighten the bottom half a touch more(by another 1/3 stop maybe), but looking at the reflection on the water in DPP they start to look strange with such a dark sky. Suppose I could do a third mask for the water, but that's taking it a bit far for my first try at merging.

As a bit more info. the original was exposed for the sky at f/9 for 1/40sec at ISO 50 using my new EF16-35mm f/2.8L. The lower half of the shot was lightened by 1 2/3 stops in Canon DPP and the colours saturated a bit before exporting to PS.

edit....p.s. Just checked the psd file and you're correct I missed a bit to the right of the 2nd hill top. The mask still has a hard edge where I missed a bit with the softer brush. I also notice that I've over done it a bit in the same area, resulting a dark edge to the ground. How do I reduce the mask to reveal the lighter image below? Tried changing foreground colour but doesn't seem to work.