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p.s. - I've finally found my ideal location for star trails! No ambient light, facing pretty much due north, with some nice foreground elements - I think I'm going camping!

A nice place to visit. Some comments:

in the first pic especially, it seems the vertical lines converge a lot more than in some of the wider shots. Did you have to point the camera up? if so, it can be corrected in PS. I only mention it as I am intrigued to see how much the walls of the fort slope (as having sloping walls in a fort strikes me as a bad idea).

the colour temperature seems to change for the pics. Did you set it manually or automatically?

I like the set and love the beautiful blue skies and warm feeling of the photos. In Paris it is cold, wet, windy and generally miserable! It is nice to have a window to a warmer world here:)

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http://www.parismetrotrash.com

To clarify the temp, it seems there are 2 sets.

The temperature of 1 and 3 match so do 2 and 4.

edit: in fact, I think just 4 is different.....

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http://www.parismetrotrash.com

Thanks for the c&c, DP-Paris.

I have a bit of an extended workflow until I can afford a new laptop. I open my D90 RAW files in Photoshop Elements 7 ACR, convert and save to 16 bit .tif, open in Photoshop CS to edit, save as a 16 bit Photoshop file, .tif or jpeg2000, and then to 8 bit jpeg for upload to my Zenfolio account to link here.

A bit long winded, but my laptop isn't packing much processing power or RAM so I can't run a newer version of Photoshop or ACR straight into Photoshop.

All shots were on auto WB, and processed from RAW as 'as shot' WB, I think.

I think on the last shot I desaturated it slightly before the final save - that may be where the colour looks off.

The top tower does have converging verticals in real life, but my viewpoint and focal length accentuated it slightly. I normally like to keep my verticals vertical - I don't think there was any +ive pitch on the first shot (I was shooting on a tripod with Joby spirit level 3D) but there was with shot 3 as I was so close to the ground and didn't want a frame too full of stones in the foreground)

These forts aren't that old - only around 200 years old - so against the firepower of the time they'd be pretty useless anyway! I think they were used more as scouting posts, as in the 'keep' in shot 2 on the right hand side you can see camel parking bays!

Not to rub it in, but when I got out of my car at 7:15 when I arrived (30 minutes after sunrise) it was 30.5 degrees C!

Here are a few internal and shaded shots - I bracketed and used Photomatix Pro Exposure Fusion to process. Nothing special, but I like the light, shade, shadows and textures - Exposure Fusion really brings out the details further...

p.s. the third shots shows some horizontal timbers set into the corner, which act as a stairway to the upper level - I wasn't trying it on my own though, with backpack, camera and tripod!

I like those. The fusion works really well. And thanks for the information on the previous shots.

Weather wise, the only thing I like about this time of the year is the food. No sunshine but tonight I get to eat raclette and drink copious amounts of red wine.

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http://www.parismetrotrash.com

Another interesting set Phil, amazing to see green planting in #2 in that harsh environment. What filter did you use, I see you mostly use ISO 200, is that to increase the shutter speed.

Cheers

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Nikon D7000, D40X, Nikkor 18- 200 VR II, f3.5-5.6, 70-300 AF non VR, Kit Lenses.

I was using a tripod pretty much throughout, so just kept the ISO at its base of 200 - there was no need to increase it.

As for filters - none were used at all. I was lucky wnough to be in the right place at the right time - there's no golden hour as such in Dubai, but 2 hours after sunrise the light gets too harsh and there's no tonal range or contrast.

If you notice the EXIF data though, despite the good light I'm adding +2/3EV in some of the outdoor shots to expose as far to the right as I can without blowing any highlights - this results in far more detail in the RAW file.

Thanks for the info Phil, I was thinking my surfing/beach shots which has similar harsh light conditions here and they look blown out although they look close to reality. I did notice the +EV and I use it for surf shots. Not sure if a CPL will help, I'm thinking it may make the surf appear dark instead of crystal colours.

Cheers

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Nikon D7000, D40X, Nikkor 18- 200 VR II, f3.5-5.6, 70-300 AF non VR, Kit Lenses.

I think harsh is the wrong word for what I'm trying to describe - more like flat.

If you were take a shot of a landscape in the lightling conditions here, your histogram would not have a good spread to it - there would be one or two peaks and a lots of troughs. So making the effort to expose to the right is possibly easier without blowing the sky, and therefore giving me more chance of getting good detail from the shot.

Agreed, would love to see some star trails from this location!

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