CCC Forum

This is an experiment in a false colour landscape from my Dartmoor trip. The location is Littaford Tors, which is just above Wistman's Wood. The tors were not my intended destination, but the Ordance Survey map only shows one footpath in the area and I followed the most obvious route. By the time I realised that it was taking me away from the wood, I was nearly at the top and decided to continue. On the way back, I found that there are two paths, with the larger one not being shown. As an aside, we tend to trust the accuracy of OS maps, but there were a number of occasions when I found the information to be misleading.

In the event, it was a fortuitous mistake as Littaford Tors consists of a jumble of photogenic rocks spread across a wide area and it was not on my list of locations. I spent some time there before going down to woods.

What I like about this shot is the way that the desaturated foreground brings out the grey of the rocks and constrasts with the false blue of the sky. Landscape purists might not agree, but I feel that this is an interpretation rather than a pure depiction of reality. I am interested to find out what others think.

Exposure details:
Focal length 10 mm on APS-C (16 mm @ 35 mm equivalent)
1/250 sec
f/8
ISO 100

I like the shot but find the sky overpowering.

davidb wrote:I like the shot but find the sky overpowering.

Thanks for the feedback, David. I suspect that this is a work in progress as I devise the best way to emphasise the texture in the foreground rocks and that I will end up toning down the sky. I have been thinking about presenting the shot purely as mono, but so far have not been able to get sufficient differentiation with the tones in the distance. When I have a bit more time, I will try lightening the rocks and increasing local contrast while darkening the background.

Did you get a mono version of this you're more happy with?

I think it'll be tricky, the light rocks will blend into the lighter parts of the background as you say, would it be worth blending multiple layers each with a different mono treatment?