Ominous Stormy Clouds

Messages
1,531
Name
Steven
Edit My Images
Yes
Hi folks,

Here are two images from yesterday down in Troon, Ayrshire. I couldn't decide which compositions I liked best so I have uploaded both. I haven't done many black and white conversions before so I'm looking for some C+C on how I could improve them. Thanks.

 
b+w hard to get opinions from people. I been missing from here for a while some people get offended when I have commented on pics but here is my opinion

maybe more contrast and some dodging n burning may be needed It all depends on what you looking for or what you hopefully want people to see from your pictures.

I not a expert but I hope you ill understand what I trying to explain. your images are nice good composition but a little flat.

here is a quick conversion as in your title of the images

I hope you are not offended by my comment

image 2

15381850710_ee458df661_c.jpg


little dodging and burning applied and a curve sorry if you do not like but as I said b+w it in the eye of ?
 
Last edited:
Hi Paul thanks for commenting. Don't worry about offending me, I would rather have an honest opinion rather than a "nice picture comment". When I was editing the image I thought I had added a lot of contrast, but when I look at your edit, they look grey and washed out in comparison! I lowered the blacks as much as I could without clipping. I noticed you have clipped a lot of the black detail in your edit but it makes the image so much more dramatic. I always try to prevent clipping the highlights and shadows in my images to retain as much detail as possible, but I'm guessing that's not always the right thing to do. I also don't play around with dodging and burning a lot, it's something I need to get into to really make my images "pop" like you have. Thanks again for the reply, I really like your edit.
 
I prefer the 2nd image as it draws me into the picture and adds depth. A little more contrast would be nice but I think its a great image as is. Have you had a fiddle with clarity in lightroom? Pushing that up to a high level might do something rather interesting.
 
I too prefer the second, the water in the foreground is somewhat distracting in the first.
Generally, for wildlife etc i avoid clipping just as you have, but for scenes where you're going after a certain look, in this case dark and ominous, a little artistic licence is a good thing.
It's also worth sleeping on it when you're applying dramatic editing. Look at it with fresh eyes the next day and you might decide that what you thought was dark enough, is actually washed out and grey, for example.
Composition and capture is great, and for the most part so is the processing, i'd be tempted to darken the hell out of the sky though, those rocks are leading you into the distance, so you need to make something dramatic to look at once your eye gets there.
 
looks like pp is the order of the day most days...!!
i like the edit
 
I don't think a B&W edit adds anything in this case.
B&W works best with shapes and contrasts and there is not enough tonal difference between the sky and the foreground to separate them.
Might be better in colour with a limited palette to distinguish between water and sky.
 
Back
Top