Bruce's Cave, Rathlin - Finally Photographed

amcinroy

After 2 failed attempts to get into Bruce's Cave on Rathlin, the weather finally turned good and we got in last Tuesday.

You can read about the adventure here. It's still in draft form so I would appreciate comments on how it flows.
http://www.andymcinroy.com/5port6b.htm

Here's some photos from the day

Reoil

I'd love to take a day off and go with you some day! (I'm in Antrim)

Kintarō Hattori

Not too wild about the second and third images but the first is fantastic.

smelltheglove

I love the first one, care to share how you captured it??? Its eerily beautiful.

amcinroy

Thanks everyone,

Smelltheglove, the 1st image was processed as an HDR from 6 exposures. These exposures spanned from 1/250th of a second(for the exterior) to 20 seconds for the darkest interior.

These exposures were processed using photomatix.

There were a couple of issues which made the processing very difficult. Firstly, the moving boat caused a series of shadow patterns in that area of the photograph. I had to select the best boat profile from one of my exposures to reclone into position in the final image. The other artifacts had to be carefully cloned out. Also, because the mouth i so narrow, I had a problem with blooming or haze around the mouth. I had to do some carefully dodging and burning to control this, however it will never be as perfect as I would like. I could darken it right down but then you lose the feeling of depth.

Hope that is of interest.

smelltheglove

Sounds hard but I bet the results are worth it in your opinion, they are in mine. I'd say well marketed you could make a few bob fromt hat pic also considering it is such a hard location to get to, I wouldnt have the energy myself, fair play!

CabanSail

I do like what you are doing & these are great places to photograph. Must be a thrill to go somewhere very few have been before.

Have you considered stacking some layers & then doing a manual merge? The way I did it was to have a mask which allows you to brush in or delete parts of each layer to make a final composite. Working with a Tablet it is quite quick & you have a lot of control.

I am assuming they are taken with a Tripod so should align well enough. I have tried this approach a few times & sometimes it works beter than using software.

amcinroy

Canban,

Thanks for that suggestion. Indeed, these were all taken with a tripod so alignment is not a problem.

I will have a go at your blending suggestion. I have never been totally happy with the control that photomatix gives me. It does tend to compress the tones in the low end of the midtone area.

Thanks for that.

Andy

CabanSail

I hope I explained it well enough then. I use a mask on each Layer so that is all you brush & not the image. It means that it's all non-destructive & can be altered as you like. You can blend things in depending on the opacity of the brush & also the layer. It's easier to show than explain.

The problem with the boat should be easy this way as you only put in the layer with the boat in the one position from a fast shutter speed.

Ihave only done this a few times & sort of made it up myself based on some of the Guy Gowan techniques, though he demostrates it all from one RAW file. There are times when the Dynamic Range is so large that the RAW file will be blown or have no detail. I try to avoid HDR where possible but sometimes it's the only way. Let me know how you go.

amcinroy

Will do, thanks for that.

Anouilh

The photos are beautiful.

For those of us who are not skilled in photographing on a moving vessel, this might be of use:

http://photokayaker.fit2paddle.com/use-your-paddle-to-stabilize-a-camera/

Also, I have read that the IS stabilizer within a lens can lead to blurring, as the mechanism follows the movement. Experts will be able to explain why this is so.

Technique

Seen your article and interview in The Irish News today.

Congratulations.

AnCatDubh

Tremendous work Andy.

When the next generation comes along (many moons from now of course) they will have your archive to refer to just as you've taken your inspiration from some of the masters of their day.

A+ as usual.

As an aside - how is the K10D hanging in there? Last you reported the abuse sea salt was causing a little corrosion - has it given up the ghost yet?

TJM

I take my hat off to you sir.

This is a superb shot in its own right and the whole makes a remarkable collection.

amcinroy

Thanks you very much everyone,

AnCat, yes I do secretly hope that this project becomes my legacy and that they stand the test of time the way the images of the old masters like Welch, Green, Lee etc have stood the test of time . I would hate to think that these images and stories will disappear when I am gone. These caves are changing very slowly over time. I hope that adventurous photographers 100, 200, 300 years from now will continue the story and using the latest technology to take this forward.

The K10D is still doing grand, albeit with a few rusted screws. I had my eye on a K-7 but I think I'll wait until all the caves are done. I can bang my old K10 about and not worry too much about it.

Here's the newpaper article from yesterday for those who haven't seen it.

Dodgykeeper

Great work as ever Andy!

mehfesto2

Have you posted pic #1 in the random phot thread? A shoe-in for photo of the week, I reckon.