3/5/2009
Heather Road
Most roads on the Hebrides (at least on the Uists, and Benbecula where we spent out time) are one-lane, with pull outs every 1/4 mile or so for meeting cars. It works surprisingly well. This is a local road that runs down the middle of North Uist, and it very definitely off the beaten path. We drove the length of it and did not meet more than one or two cars.
And, of course, Heather is Scotland. And so too are the plantations. We saw them all through the highlands, and here they from the green triangle on the right horizon.
I love the play of the light across the landscape in this shot, taken about 10 AM, when the Hebrides summer sun was still about as low as we get it in Maine at 6 AM.
Sony DSC H50 at full wide (31mm equivalent). F4.0 @ 1/250th @ ISO 100. Programed Auto.
In Lightroom, I applied quite a bit of Recovery for the sky, added some Fill Light for the foreground, as well as Vibrance and Clarity in the Presence panel. I also boosted the luminance of the magenta, purple, and green channels to make the landscape and the heather, in particular, more vibrant.
From the Scotland gallery.
Close up
Those were beautiful 🙂 Just right for an almost spring day!
Thank you for posting the details of not only the important settings, but the Photoshop edits you applied. You’re helping me pay more attention to the changes I make and giving me ideas to improve my pics.
THe heather with the road is a gorgeous shot. I absolutely love the way the road leads you back into nowhere. The colors are beautiful and it makes me want to visit Scotland just to see where the picture was taken and where that road goes! And the closeup of the heather has gorgeous color to it. Thanks for sharing!
Love the study of flowers picture but with the landscape I would be tempted to clone out the road…
Beautiful! I don’t think I’ve seen a close up of heather before.