First Light : Etive and Orchy

December 20, 2010 • Tim Parkin

We’re taking a little detour in our First Light series with a video covering two complementary images from Joe’s Scotland’s Mountains book – one you’ve seen before and one not. The first is a photo from Glen Orchy taken under very difficult conditions, bright blue skies in the mid-summer with ‘cooked’ green trees. The second is one from the book and a photograph that made Joe realise the possibilities of shooting vistas in inclement conditions. We hope you enjoy.

Glen Orchy - Joe Cornish

Glen Etive - Joe Cornish

You need to be logged in to see this part of the post

In Film, First Light, First Light Critiques, Joe Cornish, Needs Paid Subscription

One Response

1. adamp

   Another excellent video, thank you Joe and Tim. I have to say that hearing Joe’s commentary about his approach to the shots being discussed, or about the post-processing, is very illuminating and thought provoking. I am sure that I will make use of these points when I am next out with my camera.

   A couple of things struck me, especially with the Etive image: First, the point about leaving in the telegraph poles. These are such a minor intrusion that on my screen I would not have seen them if Joe had not mentioned them. So, I would have no qualms at all in cloning them out – but one could argue that they make so little “statement” about this not being a true untouched wilderness, that there can be no harm to leave them in. Having said that, on one of my images there was a telegraph pole poking out to one side of a tree stand, but I noticed it only when I was checking the scan for dust spots at 100%. I had not seen it in real life, so happily cloned it out. It was an unnecessary detail which added nothing to the scene.

   The other point that interested me was the cropping of the top sliver to take out the lighter patch, again on the Etive image. I was surprised just how much difference the crop made to the feel of the scene and frankly I preferred the uncropped version even though it goes against RPS wisdom about having distracting bright patches near the edges. To my mind that sliver of light actually added a certain mystic quality which disappeared on cropping and made the whole scene much “heavier” in appearance.
   Rgds., Adam

   On December 31, 2010 at 5:38 pm • Reply