Bill Peake  

Cliffs of Moher Sea Cave by Bill Peake

May 2021 - Cliffs of Moher Sea Cave

May 2021 - Bill Peake

Original

About the Image(s)

Here is an image I took during a trip to Ireland in May of 2013. At this point in the trip, we were in the west of Ireland and spent an afternoon visiting the Cliffs of Moher. On this day the weather was not cooperative, it was raining, windy and cold. I did take a lot of shots, which like this one did not turn out well. I did get a couple of serviceable shots at a wider angle that this one that I entered into a contest a few years ago, but that was before I knew how to use Photoshop for postprocessing. This shot was taken just as it started to rain heavily looking south on a path near small tower called O’Brien’s Tower. The image was taken with a Panasonic GH2 with the stock 14-45 lens with the focal length set to 42 mm. The aperture was f/5.63 and the shutter speed was 1/1300. The ISO was set to 1600.

Post processing was done if Photoshop CC 2021. The image was divided into 2 zones, sky and ground.

For the ground, a Camera Raw filter was added in which adjustments were made to the highlights, midrange and shadows and a dehaze was done. Finally, sharpening was selectively added for some of the rocks around the cave and where the water was breaking against the rocks.

The sky was so blown out as to be unusable. I decided to do a complete sky replacement using an image I took to a trip in Iceland in July of 2019. That image was taken with a Nikon D7200 with the stock lens. The shutter was set to 1/1000, the aperture to f/14 and the ISO to 1000. The focal length was set to 32 mm. The image was processed in Photoshop with a Camera Raw filter was added in which adjustments a slight dehaze was done. It was then imported in as a sky.

After the sky replacement was done, the image was then color matched to the sky, using a technique I picked up from a YouTube video. To do the, a duplicate layer of the sky was made and a Gaussian blur with the settings set to full blur. Then the layer mode was set to overlay and the opacity to 60%.

A global brightness contrast layer was then added and the some small adjustments made to contrast and brightness.

I then cropped out some of the sky and foreground, as it was not really adding to the image.

I am attaching the original image for reference.

This round’s discussion is now closed!
5 comments posted

 
Bill, nice photo of the cliffs in Ireland. I like the way you took the mist out and sharpen the cliffs. Your selection of the replacement sky is very good. Gives a feeling to the photo. Ireland is a great country to visit and take photos.   Posted: 05/07/2021 22:09:06
Michael Jack   Michael Jack
I like your composition with the diagonal line of the cliffs receding into the distance and the post processing you did to add the sky - but cropped down - and bring out more detail in the cliffs. To my eye it appears the wide aperture cost you sharpness in the distance beyond the effect of the haze. Also to me, it appears the top of the cliffs are unnaturally darker so I would consider bringing up the exposure to match the lower level (like the tonal range in the original image). I think your image is superior to the one I took when I was there.   Posted: 05/08/2021 11:55:59
Larry Treadwell   Larry Treadwell
I find this to be a nice "moody" image of an Irish coastline. Personally, I prefer the moody scenes to the usual nice sunny day versions that are presented most of the time. You sky replacement looks well enough matched to the rest of the image as to be believable although there seems to be a slight halo on the far right side. I also find the white rocks near the waterline on the left side look a bit unnatural, maybe they were sharpened too much?

But when all is said and done,this is a quite pleasing image.   Posted: 05/08/2021 11:58:30
Arne Skinlo   Arne Skinlo
You have done a good job in the post processing of this image, both with the sky replacement and recovering details in the cliff. I agree with Larry that the white spots at the lower left look a bit unnatural.

Ireland is not so far away for me, so this picture gave a push to go there one day.   Posted: 05/09/2021 01:07:52
Barbara Gore   Barbara Gore
Great job overall with changing the sky, matching the light, and composing the shot.
I would like to see the image a bit brighter so show off more detail in the cliffs and make the green pop.   Posted: 05/14/2021 16:46:59