Mendocino, CA 1985

http://normanrileyphotography.com/images/mendocino.JPG

4x5 Agfapan 100 in PMK on Oriental Seagull in Ansco 135 with normal Se toning. Copyright N. Riley, 1985. For other images see: http://normanrileyphotography.com/

I presume that's a big storm cloud overhead (and so it was naturally that dark), but I think the shot is probably underexposed a bit. Too many of those trees lack detail / have a burned-in look to them.

Also, I think the image would work better were you to get closer to the townscape, which would have the effect of bringing more detail into everything on the ground, and cutting out a bit of the sky.

Overall though a very nice composition / a very dramatic moment you caught.

The sky is dark due to the red filter and polarizer used. The rest is morning fog lifting. The use of the red filter accounts for the trees being dark. The image is consequently difficult to print because of the dogding necessary to hold the shadow detail, but those details are there. This image really looks best at 16x20. The shadows open up at that point. At smaller sizes, the details are harder to see. They clearly are not evident in this scan. I stood on the edge of a cliff to make this image. The only way to get closer would have been to use a longer lens and I had no such lens in my arsenal at that time. At that time, and for many years, I owned but one lens for 4x5, i.e., a 180 mm Rodenstock Sironar N.

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Originally Posted by PuckJunkey

I presume that's a big storm cloud overhead (and so it was naturally that dark), but I think the shot is probably underexposed a bit. Too many of those trees lack detail / have a burned-in look to them.

Also, I think the image would work better were you to get closer to the townscape, which would have the effect of bringing more detail into everything on the ground, and cutting out a bit of the sky.

Overall though a very nice composition / a very dramatic moment you caught.

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