Luminous Landscape Forum

Equipment & Techniques => Landscape & Nature Photography => Topic started by: MartinSpence on February 06, 2014, 10:28:28 am

Title: Marsden Rock in B&W
Post by: MartinSpence on February 06, 2014, 10:28:28 am
Last October my family took a trip to the North of England, while my boys played on the rocks avoiding the waves I took the opportunity to capture this infamous Rock on the Northumberland coast. It was a cloudy, overcast day so I think it works best in Black & White.

(http://www.martinspencephotography.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2014/01/Marsden-Rock-Northern-Ireland-Landscape-Photographer-Large-2.jpg)

Enjoy
M
Title: Re: Marsden Rock in B&W
Post by: Jeremy Roussak on February 06, 2014, 05:21:05 pm
Last October my family took a trip to the North of England, while my boys played on the rocks avoiding the waves I took the opportunity to capture this infamous Rock on the Northumberland coast. It was a cloudy, overcast day so I think it works best in Black & White.

And it works very nicely in b&w, Martin. I like it. The sky could stand being a little more dramatic.

Jeremy
Title: Re: Marsden Rock in B&W
Post by: MartinSpence on February 07, 2014, 03:50:37 am
Thanks Jeremy - I will do that.
Title: Re: Marsden Rock in B&W
Post by: Paulo Bizarro on February 07, 2014, 04:01:44 am
Nice image, I agree with the idea of adding a bit more drama to the sky.
Title: Re: Marsden Rock in B&W
Post by: Christoph C. Feldhaim on February 07, 2014, 04:06:30 am
With good pp it should work well in color too.
Overcast skies have some advantages for color work.
Title: Re: Marsden Rock in B&W
Post by: MartinSpence on February 07, 2014, 05:07:28 am
With good pp it should work well in color too.
Overcast skies have some advantages for color work.

Thanks Chris - what sort of PP would u do for it in Colour?
Title: Re: Marsden Rock in B&W
Post by: sdwilsonsct on February 07, 2014, 01:37:49 pm
Lots of potential here. I'd also like to see a little more drama and maybe colour.
Title: Re: Marsden Rock in B&W
Post by: Christoph C. Feldhaim on February 07, 2014, 03:53:53 pm
Thanks Chris - what sort of PP would u do for it in Colour?

I would need to see the colour to judge this properly.

The colour balance would be the first problem.
You'd most likely have to warm it up the right amount.
For that I'd temporarily boost saturation very strong and then check at which color balance and tint I get good colour separation.
Then I'd pull down saturation again.

Then I'd experiment with saturation boost or reduction, maybe selectively only on parts of the image.
Also selective changes of lightness or hue might get you further.
But that all depends a lot on the colour palette in the image and what it offers.

Lost of room to play here.

Cheers
~Chris
Title: Re: Marsden Rock in B&W
Post by: john beardsworth on February 08, 2014, 02:57:10 am
I like the image and don't think it needs rescuing with colour, Martin, but I think you could do a bit more with the b&w. For instance, the clouds are quite bright but don't merit as much attention as the centre of the scene, so maybe bring down their tone. I see you processed it in LR, so its grad filter would be what I'd try, dragging it down to the horizon and with a negative highlights slider (so highlights rather than the rock would be darkened). Maybe add another grad along the sky above the rock, bringing down its brightness much more. And maybe crop a bit tighter from the left?

John
Title: Re: Marsden Rock in B&W
Post by: MartinSpence on February 09, 2014, 10:42:03 am
I would need to see the colour to judge this properly.

The colour balance would be the first problem.
You'd most likely have to warm it up the right amount.
For that I'd temporarily boost saturation very strong and then check at which color balance and tint I get good colour separation.
Then I'd pull down saturation again.

Then I'd experiment with saturation boost or reduction, maybe selectively only on parts of the image.
Also selective changes of lightness or hue might get you further.
But that all depends a lot on the colour palette in the image and what it offers.

Lost of room to play here.

Cheers
~Chris


This was the colour version - thoughts?

(http://www.martinspencephotography.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2014/02/Marsedn-Rock-Colour.jpg)

@johnbeardy - thanks - I'll try that in the B&W one too.
Title: Re: Marsden Rock in B&W
Post by: Christoph C. Feldhaim on February 09, 2014, 11:48:50 am
This was the colour version - thoughts?

Here's my thoughts - maybe slightly exaggerated ... ;)

Title: Re: Marsden Rock in B&W
Post by: MartinSpence on February 09, 2014, 04:13:19 pm
Yes Chris - that's definitely a lot bluer - did u just add a blue Gad filter in LR?
Title: Re: Marsden Rock in B&W
Post by: sdwilsonsct on February 09, 2014, 04:38:52 pm
Martin, why is the water so brown? Is that how you remember it? I agree with slicing a tad off the left.
Title: Re: Marsden Rock in B&W
Post by: Christoph C. Feldhaim on February 09, 2014, 04:54:20 pm
Yes Chris - that's definitely a lot bluer - did u just add a blue Gad filter in LR?

I used curves and the grey eyedropper for colorbalance.
Title: Re: Marsden Rock in B&W
Post by: Jeremy Roussak on February 09, 2014, 04:56:42 pm
I had something like this in mind (I was working on the jpeg, and it's very small, so forgive errors).

Jeremy
Title: Re: Marsden Rock in B&W
Post by: MartinSpence on February 10, 2014, 03:40:46 pm
Martin, why is the water so brown? Is that how you remember it? I agree with slicing a tad off the left.

It was a murky old day, but I don't think the water was that brown, funny it doesn't look as brown in LR as it does not when I uploaded it...
Title: Re: Marsden Rock in B&W
Post by: MartinSpence on February 10, 2014, 03:41:13 pm
I used curves and the grey eyedropper for colorbalance.

Thanks
Title: Re: Marsden Rock in B&W
Post by: MartinSpence on February 10, 2014, 03:41:49 pm
I had something like this in mind (I was working on the jpeg, and it's very small, so forgive errors).

Jeremy

Thanks - that looks like a better version than mine.
Title: Re: Marsden Rock in B&W
Post by: Jeremy Roussak on February 13, 2014, 04:11:14 am
Thanks - that looks like a better version than mine.

Silver Efex Pro! I came late to this program, having previously been content with b&w conversions in Lightroom. I'm amazed and delighted by the results I get. It is worth the price of the Nik set on its own.

Jeremy
Title: Re: Marsden Rock in B&W
Post by: john beardsworth on February 13, 2014, 06:55:19 am
I just wouldn't put it down to Silver Efex. You could have produced a similar interpretation in Lightroom (and you're close to what I suggested in post 18), but a different set of tools often leads you to make different creative choices.

Title: Re: Marsden Rock in B&W
Post by: brandtb on February 13, 2014, 09:59:01 am
It's such a great subject...but the monument floats abnormally on a "sea of cotton"...? It would have been nice to see some edges in the water...not stopped down so much. I don't think the stylistic cliché helps with this image... /B
Title: Re: Marsden Rock in B&W
Post by: MartinSpence on February 18, 2014, 07:00:05 am
Thanks Brandt

I'll add that to future shots I take with the ND filter, to take slower shutter speed shots as well as not so slow.