B&W Sky clearing over a wee croft

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Andrew
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Another grey overcast sky today in the North of Scotland, I was going to do a few jobs at my parents and thought I'd take the camera to see if I might be able to squeeze something out at this old ruined croft.
3 hours later it was still flat grey so went inside for a coffee before heading home. It was still looking dull as I left the house and was delighted to see on the other side of the house it was starting to clear.
I don't normally know what suits B&W but looking through the camera I straight away thought B&W.
Critique and comments welcome as always
Sky clearing over the croft by andrew simpson, on Flickr
 



Wow, who did you want to hate today?
I think… your sky… maybe… a tad…!
 


What, the sky? euuuuh… found no word
for it… ya know, my english!!!

I think you should go back to your converter,
take a deep breath and start from scratch!
 


What, the sky? euuuuh… found no word
for it… ya know, my english!!!

I think you should go back to your converter,
take a deep breath and start from scratch!
OK will post the colour shot before this effort with the Nik B&W effects
 
Apart from the processing aspects, I like the composition and the feel that these mad clouds are somehow escaping from the ruin with no roof! ;)
 
Apart from the processing aspects, I like the composition and the feel that these mad clouds are somehow escaping from the ruin with no roof! ;)
Sorry Peter but I can't take any credit for that thought in your mind but I see what you are saying :)
 



I've never seen any thing like that in nature!
Could I see the original, Andrew?
 



Were you using a polarizer or else?
 
Colour without Nik Silver Effects
_MG_9416 by andrew simpson, on Flickr



This is a suggestion based on DRL for the whole picture and
the "Color Editor Advanced Selection" tool for the sky in Capture One.

wee%20croftpp.jpg

This other suggestion is based on DRL for the whole picture and
tonal tweaks for the sky in Capture One.

wee%20croftpp%201.jpg

The differences are subtle, granted but the adverse capture was brutal.
Neither approaches come to results that satisfy me and will lead the
shot directly to the imagery department!



 
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Cheers QC, I see what you are saying about the harshness but with your tweaks I might as well have taken the snap when it was still a flat grey featureless sky :)
 
I think the subtle approach is a better balance Andy as the first one the sky and ground are kind of competing with each other and it's a bit distracting. I quite like the colour one to be honest
 
I think the subtle approach is a better balance Andy as the first one the sky and ground are kind of competing with each other and it's a bit distracting. I quite like the colour one to be honest
Cheers Stu, Subtle? Not a word I'm accustomed to I'll look it up in Wiki :) B&W remains a mystery to me I guess, and now it turns out a polarizer is wrong too!
 
Cheers Stu, Subtle? Not a word I'm accustomed to I'll look it up in Wiki :) B&W remains a mystery to me I guess, and now it turns out a polarizer is wrong too!
Haha I know what you mean, I'm by no means an expert with mono but I'm finding through experience the less distracting parts the better. Don't think a polarizer is at fault as you can get nice black results with a polarizer, for me it's more that there's lots of patterns in the sky with also a lot of pattern in the brickwork which confuses the eye a bit. It might have looked a little better with a long exposure to blur the clouds a little and soften them?
 
As others have mentioned I think the sky is just a tad ott Andrew, and if it was toned down just a smidge, I think it would be ok. I love dramatic skies especially in a B&W conversion and this sky is definitely dramatic.
 
As others have mentioned I think the sky is just a tad ott Andrew, and if it was toned down just a smidge, I think it would be ok. I love dramatic skies especially in a B&W conversion and this sky is definitely dramatic.
Cheers Steve, I'll have a look at toning it down or start again without the Nik input
 
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