Stokesay Castle Photo

Photographer’s Note

Stokesay Castle, located at Stokesay, a mile south of the town of Craven Arms, in South Shropshire, is the oldest fortified manor house in England, dating to the 12th century. It is currently in the hands of English Heritage. It is a Grade I listed building.

The 17th century timber-framed gatehouse is seen here -
to the left is the three-storied south tower which has battlements dating from the late 13th century.

A lot more information about the castle, and more photographs, can be found at this very good website.

This photograph was taken on a rather dull day, and the results are not quite as good as I would have liked.

The castle shows up very well on Google Earth - see Map: [view]

Shot as JPEG: PP in PS 7.

tyro, saxo042 has marked this note useful

Critiques | Translate

Keitht (1112) 2008-11-15 11:42

There was nothing you could do about the weather. If you'd had sun and shadow I would think you had photoshopped it this year!!
There is some detail apparent in the sky and it might have been possible to make more of the area if you have the skills in PS7 (I don't). Failing that I would have been inclined to mask out more of the sky and foreground grass, to place greater emphasis on the buildings.

tyro (2666) 2008-11-15 15:27

Hello, Peter.

Unfortunately, you appear to have been blessed with as poor weather as we have here in Scotland. This looks a fascinating place and your picture of it is very nice indeed.

I think the real curse, from the photographical point of view, of dull weather is that skies, surprisingly, are bright and featureless. There's not a lot we can do about that but I've tried to do a quick little workshop using that useful tool, Lighten Shadows/Darken Highlights in PSE6. It's not always successful and I'm not so sure it's been that successful in this case, but see what you think.

Kind Regards,

John.

P.S. An interesting note and an interesting website too! And, I might say, your picture is better than any of the pictures on the website!

[workshop] [compare] +

saxo042 (15790) 2008-11-16 4:24

Hi Peter,
I see that there are already some remarks about the grey weather here. The picture is certainly very fine compositionwise (and notewise) and the WS by John is also very interesting. I have used that Shadows/Highlights feature many times, but very often my brother remarks that this often detroys the colours. I can also see in John´s WS that there is a stong, white ouline of the contours, especially round the roof. But still a very interesting exercise. And I agree that your photo is much better than the ones on the website!
Regards
Gunnar

philsim (1910) 2008-11-20 10:24

Peter you will be aware by now that I am a radical cropper. (Sounds like a sub group of Cromwell's army). See the ws.
Basically too much sky and grass.
Phil

[workshop] [compare] +

rgarrigus (0) 2008-11-20 10:28

Hi Peter,

I like the composition alterations of the workshops but I prefer your image color as it is far more realistic. Your yellow matches Stokesay much better. I'd like to see you get back to this site during a little better light - preferably earlier or later in the day and side-lit.

Cheers!

Bob G.