St Mawes Shoreline

[John R Smith]

Here’s a picture from a while back, shot on film (HP5 I think), at St Mawes on a late afternoon in December. My ex-wife, who has extremely good taste and is an accomplished artist in her own right, never liked the shot. Whereas I rather liked the mood of the seascape and the low winter light. I’ve always been in two minds about it, and I think the jury is still out. So here’s your chance to cast your own vote, let me know what you think.

John

[Christoph C. Feldhaim]

I find the square format interesting for the subject, since I'd usually expect some sort of landscape format.
I basically like the shot, but to me it appears so, that the camera should probably have been pointed a bit more to the right - at least for my taste.

[John R Smith]

I find the square format interesting for the subject, since I'd usually expect some sort of landscape format.

I hadn't really thought about the format, Christoph. When you are shooting film on the 'Blad, everything comes out square - although I think I did crop a tiny slice off the top or bottom of this one.

John

[Dave (Isle of Skye)]

I find the square format interesting for the subject, since I'd usually expect some sort of landscape format.
I basically like the shot, but to me it appears so, that the camera should probably have been pointed a bit more to the right - at least for my taste.

I think what you are saying Christopher and I agree, is that you would have preferred to see this in the 'normal' wider landscape aspect ratio of a modern SLR, becase also like me, I think we have got used to seeing that format and feel there is something missing or cropped from the width of a landscape image without it. This is not a criticism of the image BTW, I like it, although an ND grad angled over the top left corner may have helped to feather in the cloud detail a little more I think.

Photobloke

[Christoph C. Feldhaim]

I think what you are saying Christopher and I agree, is that you would have preferred to see this in the 'normal' wider landscape aspect ratio of a modern SLR, becase also like me, I think we have got used to seeing that format and feel there is something missing or cropped from the width of a landscape image without it. This is not a criticism of the image BTW, I like it, although an ND grad angled over the top left corner may have helped to feather in the cloud detail a little more I think.

Photobloke

Actually I didn't write I had "preferred" a landscape format but "expected". In fact I like the square format in the case of Johns image, just felt a slight more pointing to the right might have done the job.  Its just a matter of the tip of the curve of the shoreline and the houses which would need a bit more space on the right side.

[RSL]

John, It's unquestionably the best landscape you've posted. Seems to me the square format is ideal for this picture. Horizontal would have degraded the effect of the vertical chimneys on the house. Vertical would have eliminated the very necessary reach of the near shoreline. It's as near perfect as it can be just as it is. Bravo!

[stamper]

I can see why she is your ex-wife. You are right on this occasion. With the exception of the slightly blown out area top left this is a very fine example of B&W. The tones and the highlights on the rocks make the image. A recent thread by Seamus has some criticisms about burnt out areas spoiling an image. Here the ones on the rocks help make it. The format is fine. Nobody knows what is on the right hand side except you and because it isn't in the frame then why wonder about it?.

[John R Smith]

Folks

Thanks very much for your thoughtful input. So it looks like this one might not be a thumbs down, after all. I have taken many photos at St Mawes, but this one has always been my personal favourite for some reason (however, my personal favourites often tend to be the ones that others don't appreciate). That top-left corner is a little high, I agree. When I edited this one I did not have Lightroom, so I could not use a grad filter in post-processing. Now, I probably would try to burn it down a little, but I don't suppose there is any detail there, this being a film scan rather than a 16-bit RAW.

John

[stamper]

John, certainly not thumbs down. This isn't a poll. With regards to the light bit what you could possibly do is the burn the clouds so that the highlight looks more like the sun rather than the area looking light over all?