Abbey and castle ruins in South East Wales

[Singing snapper]

A fine Saturday was in store and my wife decided she would go into Cardiff for the day with her mum and sister, so my brother in law and his fearsome son, Alfie went ona trip around some of the ruined castles and an Abbey. Chepstow will have to be reshot as middle of the day meant fairly flat unhelpful light.

We started in Tintern at the Abbey:

Canon 5D mkIII 24 - 70L 46mm f/10 1/80 ISO 100


Tintern-Abbey by singingsnapper, on Flickr

Same camera and lens: 24mm f/14 1/40 ISO 100


Abbey-and-tree,-Tintern by singingsnapper, on Flickr

After stopping in Chepstow, me stopped for lunch between Chepstow and Newport to allow some time for the sun to lower and then made our way to Caerphilly, home to one of the largest castles in Europe:

Canon 5D mkIII 24 - 70 L f/11 28mm 1/30


Caerphilly-Castle by singingsnapper, on Flickr

Same camera and lens f/16 28mm, 1/20


Caerphilly-castle-from-moat by singingsnapper, on Flickr

[alfbranch]

The light is hardly inspiring and the sky is boring. They are sharp and OK otherwise but I think the first one could be nice in B&W.

[Singing snapper]

Harsh, but fair! The weather is glorious at the moment but oh, so hazy!

As suggested here is a black and white version of the first shot. Converted in Color efex and adjusted using curves to make a gentle s curve


Tintern-Abbey-black-and-white by singingsnapper, on Flickr

[donoreo]

I like the second version of the Abbey, but I like the B&W better than the colour version. I think the second in B&W would be good too.

[Singing snapper]

here's a B&W version of the second shot:


Tintern-Abbey-and-tree-bw by singingsnapper, on Flickr

[donoreo]

I like it better in B&W. I think you got caught by a bright sunny day! Sorry to see the weather was so nice for you

[Singing snapper]

Originally Posted by donoreo

I like it better in B&W. I think you got caught by a bright sunny day! Sorry to see the weather was so nice for you

Sunny all weekend and forecast to stay the same, The haze is the real evil as it prevents making the sky a darker blue. Shouldn't really grumble as this will probably be our suummer for 2012!

[alfbranch]

The B&W is better as I expected high contrast bright conditions often produce better B&W than colour shots.

Originally Posted by Singing snapper

Sunny all weekend and forecast to stay the same, The haze is the real evil as it prevents making the sky a darker blue. Shouldn't really grumble as this will probably be our suummer for 2012!

Thats the trouble mate as I was in the peaks last week and had the same issue apart from the one time I left my camera behind.

[donoreo]

I had the opposite problem myself. Very dark all weekend. I was taking photos of fish jumping up a fish ladder and had a hard time getting the shutter speed high enough.

[Singing snapper]

Originally Posted by alfbranch

The B&W is better as I expected high contrast bright conditions often produce better B&W than colour shots.


Thats the trouble mate as I was in the peaks last week and had the same issue apart from the one time I left my camera behind.

Murphy's Law: been there done that. I went for a walk in the Lake District a few months ago on a wet day and decided to leave the Pentax behind and at the end of the day the clouds parted to give a great sky in a great location by the Rothay. Had nothing other than my phone to shoot it with.