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Raglan Castle

OLYMPUS E-410

settings

Aperture f/7.1 ISO 100 Shutter 1/160 Focal Length 14/1

upload_date

Aug, 2015

Views

197

Likes

+13

Awards

People's Choice in Ancient ruins in black and white and gothic mood Photo Challenge

Superb Composition

Absolute Masterpiece

Top Choice

Peer Award

See all

Same photographer See all Behind The Lens

Mirror scultpure, Royal Fort Gardens, University of Bristol

Bristol Photographic Group Challenge - Time Out

Behind The Lens

Location

This is Raglan Castle in Monmouthshire, Wales. The view is of the main castle entrance.

Time

This was taken mid-morning on a bitterly cold February day.

Lighting

The day was grey and overcast, so the lightling was fairly flat for the most part, However there was enough variation in the cloud cover to avoid a completely flat sky. The exposure was taken from the sky to get the maximum amount of variation in contrast between the cloud layers.

Equipment

This was taken with an Olympus E-410 with a 14-42mm Olympus zoom (28-84mm equivalent).

Inspiration

This was just a magnificiant view of the castle and the first real view of the whole building.Having come through the entrance gates to the site, this huge structure dominates the hill and the view in front of you. I moved a little to one side to get a better viewpoint and to include as much of the ruins as I could. I exposed for the sky to keep the contrast in the sky in order to be able to add drama later and enhance the feeling of ruined granduer. I even left people in the shot to add some scale.

Editing

This was processed from the RAW file to make some initial improvements to contrast and enahnce the contrast. This was then saved as a high res tiff file for further processing in Photoshop. I straightened out some slight converging verticals. I used the Topaz Black & White filter system to do the conversion to monochrome and further enhance the contrast. I then selectively adjusted the darker parts of the foliage and stonework to recover detail from the shadows.

In my camera bag

Normally I have the Olympus and a 14-42mm zoom and a 40-150mm zomm (80-300mm equiavlent. I generally carry a circular polariser. I didn't take any additional lenses as I didn't think I would need them on that particular day.

Feedback

Although this is a fairly standard shot of the outer walls, I choise a view point from one side so that I could include as much of the full sweep of the walls as possible. I also found a dip in the ground to give me a slightly lower viewpoint. This with the contrrast in the sky adds drama to the picture. Do watch out if you are using wider focal lengths for converging verticals which I personally don't feel add much to pictures like this.

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avj243

Raglan Castle

Behind The Lens

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