Luminous Landscape Forum

Equipment & Techniques => Landscape & Nature Photography => Topic started by: churly on July 29, 2014, 04:26:29 pm

Title: Tenacity
Post by: churly on July 29, 2014, 04:26:29 pm
Critique welcome.
Chuck
Title: Re: Tenacity
Post by: Slobodan Blagojevic on July 29, 2014, 04:59:26 pm
Hmmm... something seems off with that b&w conversion. The sky seems ok, the leaves appear too light, and I would like to see a better tonal separation between the rocks and the tree branches. Overall, those three areas (leaves, branches, rocks) seem to blend into each other, and I think they would benefit from a clearer separation.
Title: Re: Tenacity
Post by: sdwilsonsct on July 29, 2014, 07:04:15 pm
I like the contrast between the blocky stones and the sweeping tree.

A nit: when it comes to clouds, timing is everything. And for "timing", read "luck", mostly.
Title: Re: Tenacity
Post by: churly on July 29, 2014, 07:15:50 pm
Thanks for the thoughts guys.  Agreed on both counts. 
I shot this on a very fine walk with my wife and son but I rarely shoot well on those walks.  Unfortunately the number of keepers over the last couple months has been rock bottom.  :(
Chuck
Title: Re: Tenacity
Post by: Paulo Bizarro on July 30, 2014, 04:39:26 am
It's a good B&W. Given the light, I am not sure how much more tonal separation can be achieved?

Also, would it have been possible to take the shot from a lower angle, reducing the overlaying between branches and rocks?
Title: Re: Tenacity
Post by: maddogmurph on July 30, 2014, 06:01:44 pm
"luck", mostly.
+1

You need a lightning  :o storm! :o
Title: Re: Tenacity
Post by: churly on August 05, 2014, 05:49:57 pm
When I first saw this last week, I wondered:

- whether the lack of separation between tree (juniper?) and rock was intentional, tree taking-on the enduring quality of rock

- whether tilt-shift would have allowed the plane of focus to be aligned with the direction of the tree into the picture plane

- whether IR would have created a tonal separation between the new growth, and the twisted roots and rock.

Yes, I was trying to convey the tree (a juniper) hanging in there in the frame of the rock (thus the title) but the lack of tonal separation wasn't intentional.  In fact, I think this was a good idea that wasn't supported by the execution or the light or clouds.  I don't have experience with T-S but on an APS sensor, I don't imagine there is enough dof discrimination to work with.  That's just a guess.

I sort of pseudo-IR'd it in the processing at least in terms of pushing the greens to the extreme.  That didn't pass Slobodan's believability filter and I tend to agree.

I am going to let this sit for a while but will likely come back to it if I can identify a processing strategy that will do a better job of getting what I want.  I'm not likely to take the time to do anything about the clouds though.