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Photograph Information Photographer's Comments
Challenge: Free Study 2013-01 (Advanced Editing VII)
Camera: Canon EOS-5D Mark III
Lens: Canon EF 24-105mm f/4.0L IS
Location: Drakensberg South Africa
Date: Jan 6, 2013
Aperture: f/16
ISO: 100
Shutter: 1/160
Galleries: Landscape, Black and White
Date Uploaded: Jan 27, 2013

 Taken on a family holiday after the mad rush of the Christmas season. I took my wife and daughter to a cottage called Ema-Fweni in the Champagne Valley, Drakensberg, South Africa after a suggestion from RianBotes. Thank you Rian - it was wonderful.

Ema-Fweni means "Place in the clouds" and we certainly were in the clouds for a few days. On one afternoon the clouds lifted a bit and this beam of light happened to shine through for about a minute. Luckily my camera wasn't far away so I managed to get few shots of this.

Editing was to double process the raw - one for land and one for sky to increase dynamic range. Blend using gradients and luminosity masks in PS. Curves adjustment layers to make clouds and sky pop. Some selective dodging burning used masked curves layers applied to the FG layers and light beam.
Resize and sharpen and SFW

Statistics
Place: 16 out of 217
Avg (all users): 6.5210
Avg (commenters): 9.2500
Avg (participants): 6.4375
Avg (non-participants): 6.6923
Views since voting: 715
Views during voting: 198
Votes: 119
Comments: 7
Favorites: 2 (view)

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AuthorThread
 02/24/2013 09:31:46 AM
Greetings from the better late than never Critique Club!

First impressions: Excellent, almost Ansel-like. The dominant object in the shot of course is the ray of sun light. You did an excellent job capturing that. Everything in the shot, from the mountains to the clouds, stands in tack-sharp clarity. The seperation of the mountain tops from sky is especially pleasing to the eye. The ray of light, of course, acts to draw the eye nicely from the sky to the hills.
The voters rewarded your hard work, excellent placing in a free study.
If I were to think of things I would change in the shot, it seems as though the tones of the black and white conversion could have some more contrast. I am left wishing (at least on my monitor) that I could see more details in the lower part of the hills.
However, I don't think these things alone take away from an excellent shot. I would have no problem hanging this on my wall.

Congrats on an excellent shot.

J
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 02/08/2013 05:15:26 AM
Biblical it is. Portrait of God's Grace Super shot
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 02/08/2013 04:06:38 AM
Wonderful image. Excellent result Stephen.
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 Comments Made During the Challenge
02/07/2013 12:01:37 PM
Timeless shot. Great work and love the light coming through there. This only gets my top score
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 02/02/2013 06:58:57 PM
Oh yeah, could of been a good one for 'Biblical', 8!
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 02/02/2013 08:39:52 AM
This one could have been in the Biblical challenge! Glorious light; well seen and captured.
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 02/01/2013 03:42:55 AM
Wonderful Dragon's Berg image. Super sun spotlight and rays. Almost biblical. Listen to Creeds "Higher" whilst examining this shot. Stephen? 800px doesn't do this justice.
  Photographer found comment helpful.


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