Castle in the Clouds

[deena]

This was taken about 50 mins after sunset. Not sure if a bw edit would look better. Exposure time was 30 secs, hence the movement in the clouds - it was quite windy I'm working on my laptop at the moment, so not sure if it's really dark to everybody else

[MattUK]

Hi Deena, looks like a great shot, but it's a bit too dark to tell, especially on the left side

[jet_kit]

Hi Deena.
Love it. You could slice a little off the left without losing the symetry and perhaps beef up the contrast so that the barely discernable features in the foreground disappear. This will give the whole composition something 'solid' to sit on. I would do anything with the colours - I think they're great as they are.

[deena]

Thanks guys! I appreciate your comments. I've tried cropping the LHS off and boosting the contrast. Is it looking any bettter?

[blech]

Hello Deena. This is a good photograph and I like how you've capture the movement of the sky. Stunning view as well. However as Matt mentioned before the photo is too dark at the bottom. Cropping helped a bit but your eyes are still dragged to this dark place. If you still have a RAW file you could perhaps try and bring some of the mid-tones back or if you are using lightroom/camera raw you can try and use the fill light slider. The other suggestion would be to go and re-shot it with the ND filter (I don't know if you have them) which would make a huge difference to the picture . Hope that helps a wee bit

[deena]

Thanks blech! I use Lightroom, so I will try to bring the foreground back a little with the 'fill light'. If I were to reshoot the scene would an ND filter or an ND grad be best?? And when you say a huge difference, are you talking about the movement in the clouds?