It’s considerably better; just something to bear in mind when looking at the images.
It had taken us 5 years to return to Ardnamurchan; something not entirely of our making but, for all that, still too long. The images hopefully show at least some small part of what the area has to offer; the words are mostly about my ongoing struggles with shot selection, composition, and the sometimes comical interactions between Lightroom menus and a man of a certain age…
A quiet Loch Shiel from Acharacle jetty in late evening light; Beinn Resipol disappearing into cloud.
Ardnamurchan Point, surf just picking up!
Loch Sunart, viewed from the shoreline east of Resipole. Ideally I would have liked to get lower and have more of the trees outlined against the sky…
Camas an Lighe – sometimes known colloquially as The Singing Sands – near Gortenfern, Ardnamurchan
Looking across Kentra Bay from the track near Arivegaig.
Kentra Bay, Ardnamurchan, in fluctuating light.
Narrative…
Occasionally I’ve been guilty of congratulating myself on taking a decent photograph. The reality is that on most of those occasions the camera has done that – I just happened to be holding it at the time! Hence the desire to improve – not only the use of the camera, but also an exploration of the mystical world of editing (or ‘post processing’ as the professionals seem to prefer). Indications so far suggest that this is going to be a long haul…
About the images…
All of the images were shot as RAW files, then lightly edited: the objective being to get the closest representation of the scene as I recalled it, with minimal enhancement.
Mostly I’m shooting in aperture priority and sticking to the middle of the range (f10, f11 or similar) to give reasonable sharpness in the fore and middle grounds, and allowing the camera to select shutter speed and ISO. When occasionally shooting in manual mode I still rely on auto ISO, simply because I don’t have the skill to instinctively balance three separate settings.
Image 1 (Loch Shiel): Some increase in the temperature to bring out the gorse on the far shore. For this shot I used a Sony A5000 with the 18-105 G lens, zoomed to 42mm. I set the aperture at f11, the camera chose 1/80th – which seemed reasonable for the shot – and an ISO of 160.
Image 2 (Ardnamurchan Point): Same camera/lens combination as above; zoomed to 70mm, 1/200th @ f11, (Auto) ISO 100. Minimal editing in Lightroom: small correction to compensate for overexposure; temperature lowered slightly; blacks enhanced for the foreground.
Image 3 (Loch Sunart): Sony a5100 this time, still with the 18-105 lens; zoomed to 80mm; f11, 1/125th, auto iso (250). Just one adjustment to the blues, with a view to compensating for a slightly flat sky.
Image 4 (The Singing Sands): Sony a5100 again, with the 18-105 at maximum zoom; 1/200th at f11; iso 500. A bit of beach, some sky, some sea, a solitary tree clinging on in defiance of the hostile environs, minimal editing to just bring out the shadows in the rocks. The sky was mostly thin cloud and as flat as it looks in the shot.
Image 5 (Kentra Bay from near Arivegaig): Sony a5100+18-105G lens, zoomed to 60mm; 1/100th sec at f11; iso 125. Pretty much as shot, other than some slight enhancement to bring out the blue tones in the sky.
Image 6 (Kentra Bay): Kentra Bay, Ardtoe, Ardnamurchan, taken in fluctuating light. Sony A5100 with the 18-105G lens; 1/60th at f11; auto ISO chose ISO 100). Temperature increased slightly to ‘warm’ the sand and vegetation; highlights taken down to remove some glare.
Just a few more steps? 
The photos are obviously very good but unfortunately small thus not doing them justice. On a Blogger blog photos can be enlarged to see as a slideshow. I have used Dropbox from time to time where your photos can then be viewed as a full screen slideshow from a link posted in your blog. I bow to your more comprehensive than mine grasp of the technicalities of photography, I tend to rely mainly on automatic settings, but as you demonstrate composition is all and I have no hesitation in cropping and using a bit of dark and/or light enhancement using Photoshop Elements.
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Oh dear! I just realised I was looking at your post as an email and have mow come to your proper WordPress blog where the photos are shown to much better advantage.
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Hi Conrad, and thanks for stopping by. I’m very much at the beginner stage when it comes to editing, and for a long time I was put off by the sheer complexity of the available options in Adobe Lightroom. The best advice I had was from someone (a good photographer) who told me to think of it as just another piece of software: “Hardly anybody uses all of the functions in Word, or Outlook; they learn to use what they need. Editing software is no different”. It sort of kick-started me a bit. Hope you’re keeping well.
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Have to say I’ve stopped using my DSLR the past couple of years and playing with image processing. I just found my iPhone takes such decent images these days. I should really get back into the swing of it.
Some superb photos by the way, particularly the last one and the colour in the sand
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Hi Andy, I have a couple of dilemmas to resolve when it comes to taking photos on a walk: I know that phone cameras have come on a lot over the years, but I struggle with touchscreens* and just can’t seem to wean myself off physical buttons. On the other hand – mostly because I always want to carry binoculars as a priority – I don’t much fancy carrying a lot of camera weight on anything resembling a long walk.
Ideally my favourite camera/lens combination would be a Sony a5000 and the 18-105 short zoom; not a huge bundle and less than 700gms combined. But added to the food, drinks, spare clothing, map, binoculars already around the neck, and whatever else, it can still be a pain; so I usually just carry the a5000 with a small kit lens, save about half of the overall weight and obviously forego some of the possibilities.
Other than that mostly I take photographs in places where it’s just a short stroll and I only have to carry the camera and maybe a drink.
* I can’t walk and text at the same time (honestly!)
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