[Dave]

No chance of capturing these light rays in a single shot, without the help of HDR. Saved 5 shots from original RAW image, across the exposure range & then loaded into Photomatix & tweaked. Then converted to Mono & added a bit more punch to shot.

[Rob Barron]

I love the result Dave, a real quality mono, well done.

Just one tiny bit that is distracting me a little but it may be that a quirk of lighting made that happen: the top central light area where the rays are coming through to the left, there seems to be a ring around the whole where it is bright, then a strip of grey cloud, then a bright ring and then the rays. It is possible that the depth of cloud has caused this effect, I am not sure.

But overall, I absolutely love it, top drawer.

Cheers,
Rob

[Markulous]

My first reaction was a 'Wow' as the rays look great! But then I saw the burned highlights and, as I have a thing about burned highlights, I can't get passed them. And the FG field looks slightly odd (think it's too light for the apparent light from sky).

[Dave]

Rob, yep original was like that & same to Mark re burnt out highlights.....even at max end of RAW settings. Think it needed a tripod & some serious bracketing to get that sky perfect