This is the finished print vs. the original pic. [This attachment has been purged. Older attachments are purged from time to time to conserve disk space. Please feel free to repost your image.]
This one ALMOST works for me. But I just can't accept the visible halo around the castle. Everything else has an excellent dream-like look to it. When I look at the lower half of the picture it looks excellent.. So I guess what I'm saying is the foreground-sky transition needs more work. Also I feel the sky is too dark. I wonder if the sky would look better clear and bright blue. That would require altering the picture, I know, but at this point we're entering the arena of pure art so I think such substitutions are acceptable. In case I'm sounding too harsh let me repeat again, I love the lower portion. That you took a dull and dreary cloudy picture and turned into a technical dreamscape is amazing. It looks as if you've used a bit of the "false tilt shift" effect, I don't know if you actually did or not but it has that look to it, it enhances the overall surreal effect. You say "finished versus original pic".. does that mean you did this with one picture only? I mean no bracketed exposures?
Thanks for the critique. The halo is there intentionally, I added it as a "glow" effect. The bright blue and clear sky seems to be the most popular pic of the castle, so I always try to look different. It has that "false tilt shift" look because of the gradient blur that was used. And yes it was done with one picture. Thanks again for the input. I'll have more pics to come.
i really like it the way it is, it reminds me of those great album/fantasy art you used to see about 20 or so years ago that dreamy hero/heroine vs dragon stuff yeah that's what it needs a dragon in there
