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Author Topic: B&W Cornish landscapes  (Read 2177 times)

George F

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B&W Cornish landscapes
« on: August 02, 2009, 03:15:15 pm »

These are my first attempts at some B&W conversions.  It's harder than I thought.  I think I need some more dramatic skies perhaps?

I'd really appreciate knowing what your favourites are and why.  Or if your glass is half empty, which are your least favourites and why...

Surf school in bad (or is it good?) weather


Walkers near Mullion Cove


Farm gate at sunset
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JeffKohn

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B&W Cornish landscapes
« Reply #1 on: August 02, 2009, 07:28:21 pm »

'Walkers near Mullion Cove' is wonderful. Excellent use of the panoramic format here. The tonality and isolation of the walkers makes them a strong subject, but there's plenty to keep the eye interested in the rest of the frame. The grassy hill could have been boring in monochrome without the flowers, but they add enough tonal variety to keep that from happening. The BW conversion is nice, you've got a full range of tones but the contrast doesn't looked forced.

'Farm gate at sunset' looks overprocessed to me. I don't knokw if this is a case of HDR tonemapping gone bad or just oversharpening, but it has the crunchy, digital look I don't like. There are haloes on high-contrast edges and the grass in the foreground is way oversharpened IMHO.
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Jeff Kohn
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RSL

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B&W Cornish landscapes
« Reply #2 on: August 02, 2009, 09:36:38 pm »

George, I agree with Jeff. "Walkers" is a fine piece of composition and execution. "Surf School" loses me. I don't know what the focus of the picture is. On "Farm Gate," again I agree with Jeff. I like the composition and I like the line of fog in the background, but I'd back off a bit on the Clarity slider and the sharpening. Keep at it. I'd like to see more. I'd hang "Walkers" in a prominent place if it were mine.
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wolfnowl

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B&W Cornish landscapes
« Reply #3 on: August 03, 2009, 02:12:19 am »

I agree too!

Mike.
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If your mind is attuned t

George F

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« Reply #4 on: August 03, 2009, 09:15:53 am »

Thanks, guys!

The gate was 10 exposures and HDR.  I wanted loads of detail in the foreground and guess I overdid it for most tastes...

Thanks, again.  I'll try to get some more up when I get time.
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jasonrandolph

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B&W Cornish landscapes
« Reply #5 on: August 03, 2009, 05:46:22 pm »

I'll echo what Russ et al. said.  The first image is unclear as to subject, but the second one is excellent.  The gate shot is overprocessed.  Haloes are a pain to control, but they make all the difference in the world when judging believability of a photograph.

walter.sk

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B&W Cornish landscapes
« Reply #6 on: August 04, 2009, 09:41:01 am »

Quote from: jasonrandolph
I'll echo what Russ et al. said.  The first image is unclear as to subject, but the second one is excellent.  The gate shot is overprocessed.  Haloes are a pain to control, but they make all the difference in the world when judging believability of a photograph.
I agree with everyting said so far.  While the "oversharpened" effect visible in the foreground in the farm Gate shot may be from over-use of clarity, problem in tonemapping the HDR, or several other possibilities (such as overemphasis of "structure" in NIK SilverEfex,) the sky in the 2nd image also shows some of this pushing of local contrast in an effort to make it dramatic.  Look at the sky in the first image, which has smoother gradients and looks much more natural.

I love the 2nd image, but I would like to see it reprocessed to leave the sky more natural looking.
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markhout

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B&W Cornish landscapes
« Reply #7 on: August 05, 2009, 11:09:22 am »

« Last Edit: August 05, 2009, 11:10:54 am by markhout »
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