Cover Picture Issue 116

[jet_kit]

I've just picked up Issue 116 (September 2011) and was immediately taken with the cover picture.
BUT - The exposure data provided looks a little odd:
A heavy overcast day in Scotland and the shot was taken at ISO50; 1/200 @ f9. That's the sort of exposure you might expect on a sunny summer's day in the south of England. Not only that, Michel has a ND400 filter attached (9 stops in my book).
Can you only achieve this level of moodiness by underexposing a dozen or so stops, or am I missing something?

[MattUK]

Perhaps it was a composite, and one of the shots was at those settings?

[jet_kit]

Hmmmmm.
Michel describes only one exposure which he processed twice in Raw, once for the highlights and once for the shadow then merging the two images using layer masks. So, I don't think that's the answer.

[Geoff Harris]

Hi
Thanks for this, will check again - his English was about as good as my French, so we might have got some crossed wires here

As far as I know it's not a composite, but will check with him again

Glad you like the image anyway. PS the one before, of St Michaels Mount, was taken by an amateur in Cornwall, so it's certainly not the case we only use pros for the cover

Rgds and thanks, Geoff