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One of the highlights of our recent trip to the UK was a flying visit to Stonehenge. I had never been there before despite living and visiting the UK for most of my life.

Unfortunately, despite being the middle of summer, the weather was abysmal: early morning, light mist, heavy drizzle. I kept my camera under my coat for most of the visit, but brought it out for some rapid fire shots as we circled around the monument. We were there early morning and managed to keep ahead of the tourist masses to get some decent photos.

I would have like to have had a little more space on the sides of the image, but wasn't game to switch my lens in those conditions

Here's one I quite like in colour and BW versions:

They look good. I think I prefer the mono version, it doesn't make the sky look like a little bit of a handicap so much as well. I think also if you crop in from the sides it will be much stronger and not as though it is trying to escape from the frames.

Prefer the subtle greens of the color version I think.

leek wrote:I would have like to have had a little more space on the sides of the image, but wasn't game to switch my lens in those conditions

I hope you are joking because this would have been an easy stitch even if you hand held it...

I am not sure which I prefer, I am leaning towards the colour version since there is some nice moss/damp colours which give a bit more 'feeling' to the image than the BW version.

I reckon 3 odd images in a pano stitch woulda fixed that lens issue

Yeah - I know - I took some others which might be stitchable... I'll give it a go sometime.

Just to prove I did think about stitching - despite being soaked to the skin, here's an image constructed from 10 separate images which I grabbed just before leaving the site...

Stitched in photoshop, then corrected the lens distortion somewhat and applied a slight vignette.

John, do you mind if i post a copy i've had a play with?
I was trying a new technique out today and i think it works quite well with this image.

Wink wrote:John, do you mind if i post a copy i've had a play with?
I was trying a new technique out today and i think it works quite well with this image.

Go for it... I'll tell you if I don't like it Just as long as it's not "Tilt-Shift"

It's a Calvin Hollywood technique for bringing out detail. I learned about it at http://www.scottkelby.com/blog/2010/archives/8691

Fair enough Wink... it's an interesting technique, but I'm not sure it suits this image... feel free to let it stay tho...

... so maybe there was a call for a raincover for the camera and lens. Op Tech are the cheapest. With a Kata (or perhaps a cheap Chinese copy) there's probably room to change a lens. The best I suspect is Think Tank (though Aqua Tech are the dearest).

One thing that niggles for me a bit about the original colour image is the brightness and colour of the grass, in terms of its psychological impact as against the stones. It might be better a bit darker and a bit greener.

John

The image is worth persevering with. I'm with Murray on this the grass is too saturated yellow I think.