A couple from the Blue Mountains - Three Sisters

[Reschsmooth]

Was at the Fairmont Resort last week for a conference, and had an hour or so to walk to Sublime Point for some photos.

These were taken on f90x, 20mm (at about f16 or so) using Fuji PRO 160S colour film.

Having no idea how to judge distances, I would say that Sublime Point is something like 2km away from Echo Point/3 Sisters.

Given the time of day and position of the sun, I would normally bracket shots like this, but not having a tripod with me nor the MF26 back for the f90x (which provides a bracketing function), I didn't really bracket. I therefore tried to get some detail in both the sky and foreground (which were many stops apart in exposure), but think I lost a lot of detail in the foreground.

C&C most appreciated, particularly in terms of:

1. Does the lack of prominance of the three sisters, given distance,* reduce any impact of these photos?
2. Does the use of the gradient layer in shot 1 add or detract?
3. Does the monochrome conversion work?
4. Generally, do you think there is enough impact to make these good photos? (Given the exposure problems, I sought to increase contrast via curves - wanting opinions on this).

Shot 1



Shot 2 - this is a cropped photo taken at a slightly different time to Shot 1.



Cheers

Patrick

*It's funny how poor punctuation can ruin the context of the question.

[Glen]

Patrick, I find the 3 sisters are not a feature of the first image. I also would say that you have shown other images with a stronger focal point.

[Reschsmooth]

Thanks Glen - having someone else's opinion can help shape one's own point of view (rightly or wrongly) and I probably agree with you now!

P

[Alpha_7]

I didn't even notice the 3 sisters in the first, then saw the second and could make them out, and went back to the first and had to really look to see them.

1. Yes, it does lack prominance

2. Without having an original to compare too, I'm not sure I can comment

3. The Mono of the second does work better then the first which looks (honestly.. pretty wrong, to me)

4. First one, no, second one.. still a no, but had you told me it was taken by your grandfather with his first camera, then I might of said yes.

Sorry if these seems overly harsh, but like Glen I think I've seen a lot better images from your in the past.

[Reschsmooth]

Thanks Craig - I appreciate the harsh feedback.

I guess one thing I was trying to achieve, given the sillhouetting of that ridge that includes the three sisters, was a very minimalist type landscape shot where the ridgeline was focal point - however, I concede that this was the aim from a PP perspective, not a photographic perspective (ie. when I saw the prints of the exposure, I figured I may as well try to lose all foreground detail and go for the sillhouette).

I don't know if that makes sense, and, either way, it would appear I didn't achieve my objective, which is fair enough - experimentation often includes failure

P