Golden Arch Photo | TrekEarth

Photographer’s Note

The Arch is just a few miles east of the 12 Apostles on the Great Ocean Road. Similar to what we found at the 12 Apostles there is great parking for this location with a paved path to the observation area. If you’re lucky you might even see some wildlife on your walk down this path.

As can be seen from the fallen rocks at its base it is another Apostle in the making. I was waiting to get a shot of a decent wave smashing itself up on the rock. That didn’t happen but I was able to get the wash over the lower rocks which provided some good churn for the shot. When I took this shot it was actually getting quite dark, the sun was just about gone, what little there was, was on the rock and water so that helped.

Workflow was as follow:
Shot in Raw - NEF files adjusted for exposure and shadow (raised exposure by 1.5 for light)
Filtered for lens correction – Distortion and Horizontal Perspective (minor -2 for each)
Adjusted levels separate for sky vs sea and land
Adjusted curves separate for sky vs sea and land
Filtered for noise on sky, then again on overall so sky was reduced twice
Added saturation +10 to master
Dodged and burned with overlay layer (5% opacity brush)
Added a layer for sharpening and “over-sharpened” with USM
Modified sharpening with a layer mask (15% opacity black brush)
Saved as a tiff
For this post, created a new sharpening layer for the reduced size and redid the technique from above, framed, and saved as a jpeg

linask, mvdisco, feather, bakes888, jmcl, MLINES, jhm, pboehringer, dianersb, PDP, pierrefonds, jusninasirun has marked this note useful

Critiques | Translate

bracasha75 (21936) 2007-06-15 2:51

Helo John
Special shot from the top of this clif
Lovely view
Cheers,Braca

mvdisco (11446) 2007-06-15 8:36

Bonjour John,
Excellente composition de ce bord de mer avec ce rocher percé qui fait un arc, jolies couleurs et Point de vu. Mes salutations et Bon weekend.
Michel

Marcelo_Almeida (1044) 2007-06-15 10:20

Hi John,
Bela composição, ótima nitidez e dof. Well done.
TFS,
Marcelo Almeida

feather (49858) 2007-06-15 11:33

Good high POV from the cliff top. You certainly have captured the wild water well. The inclusion of the fg bushes in a diagonal works very well in the composition. Well done
Kath

Cormac (26449) 2007-06-15 19:33

With a title like that you have to be careful that McDonald's doesn't sue you! Great view of the rock, and you got some nice light too, which really shows the colour of the rock very well. I like the strong use of the diagonal line too. Well done!

gunbud (27755) 2007-06-15 21:53

Hi John,
Wonderful dramatic seascape of the crashing surf pounding on this lovely arch cut by the forces of nature. The colors are clear and details very sharp. Love the shadows inside the arch.
Regards, Tom

bakes888 (18055) 2007-06-16 2:00

Hi John. One golden arch, sounds like half a McDonald’s ;-). Great photo, very dynamic. Well composed and thanks for sharing.
Cheers, Paul.

jmcl (13721) 2007-06-16 17:37

Hi John,

Great capture of the power of this place .. wonderful subtle interplay of light and shadow.
beautiful image.

take care,

John

MLINES (10852) 2007-06-16 21:55

Hi John. Well cropped and presented composition of this famous arch which is one of only a few alng the coast as the biggest one collapsed a few years ago, stranding some tourists without a way of walking back!A helicopter rescued them i recall. Good level horizon and realistic colours throughout. tfs. Murray.

jhm (82185) 2007-06-17 7:48

Hello John,

Again a excellent picture out of this area, nice combination between the brown colour of the rocks and the foam in water, very well composition too. TFS.

Have a nice day,
John.

pboehringer (770) 2007-06-17 11:12

Golden Arch, huh? I'm lovin' it! ;-)
Perfecct POV framing the whole from top to bottom. Good moment of the day to get all those pastel colors in the white of the wave. Good inclusion of the diagonal shaped bushes in the foreground.
I ope I find some time today or tomorrow to "work" on your files!

triptych2003 (1398) 2007-06-18 3:11

hi john

a unique rock formation here. nice detail and exposure control shows us how fine this formation is. would have been nice to have some sense of scale though.. dunno how but it could have been good. a fine composition all-round. well done!

capthaddock (28640) 2007-07-06 8:10

Hi John - this is one of the highlights of that road for me, been tehre twice, the last time I also waited for a sunbreak at sunset, but didn't get it, instead the rain got steadier, great timing here with the post sunset glow.

PDP (439) 2007-07-17 3:04

Hi John, reminds me somewhat of our Durdle Door in the UK. Nice coastal feature this - i quite like the foam from the waves on the rocks. Well done.

pierrefonds (26069) 2007-08-16 4:44

Hi John,

A good POV of golden arch and of the sea, the photo has a good composition, DOF and nice colors. Thanks for sharing.

Pierre

jusninasirun (10150) 2008-06-25 7:15

Hello John. Amazing creation by nature. Beautiful sharp image in contrasting color. The light slicing on top of the foliage is a definite plus point here. Thanks for sharing and very well done. Best regards. Jusni

Photo Information

Copyright: John Plumb (JPlumb) (3153)
Genre: Places
Medium: Color
Date Taken: 2007-04-04
Categories: Nature
Camera: Nikon D200, Nikkor 18-200mm 3.5-5.6 G ED AF-S VR, Sigma EX Wide Circular PL 72mm
Exposure: f/4.8, 1/20 seconds
Details: Tripod: Yes
More Photo Info: view
Photo Version: Original Version
Date Submitted: 2007-06-14 22:08