Critique Required Help Please With High Key B&W

Ronald Atchley

Ronald Atchley

Well-Known Member
What is the old saying about trying to "make a silk purse from a sow's ear" :)
Any help or suggestions would be appreciated. I'm truly not masochistic but
candor is the best teaching tool :)
Thanks.
Ron

Oh, can the larger image be reached from this ( Did I get the privacy thing fixed ) ?


46B&WCropped#2 by Ronatch, on Flickr
 
Hi Ron! The good news is that you got the privacy and display fixed. I'll be honest and say the first thing I wondered when I saw this was what did it look like originally. I don't follow rules, but the main point of interest does stick to the rule of thirds. I don't know about the fence - to my eyes it is acting as some kind of block into the rest of the picture. There seems to be an odd grain too that doesn't sit naturally with a foggy scene. I'm sure someone far more technical than me will be able to put their finger on it :)
 
I really like it.
Well done
 
My advice would be - go back and shoot it again. Shoot at an angle so that the fence forms a diagonal lead in.
 
I love the scene alot, it has lots of potential, However i am not quite sure on what ever PP you may have done is making it look almost like a drawing / pencils sketch rather that a photograph.

How about a straight forward BW conversion or maybe upload the colour version & let us play :-)

Daz
 
YES!!!! Good idea Daz!! Lets play! I like Play!! :D:D

I see where your coming from Zooey and Darren.
And the idea of retaking the image as suggested by Dave is also a good option.

I think the principal of the images is almost spot on.... but the PP could do with more 'experimenting' :)
 
Really appreciate ya'll taking time to help.
Yep. The fence is dominating a composition that may have
potential. Sort of did that on purpose because I was trying
to work up an pic to enter in the local club competition which
has the subject " Fences" :) Right now, this is the only pic I've
got with a fence in it. It is just off the 4 lane highway that I take
into work each morning and shooting at a different angle could
be hazardous. Was trying to accentuate the fence for the competition
while at the same time trying to add some depth by varying the level
of detail from front to back and the level of brightness from back to front.
If ya'll have time to play with it, I would greatly appreciate it. Would
be nice to also have an idea of what ya'll did. I used Camera Raw, CS5,
Nik SEP, and Nik CEF.
Thanks.
Ron


46RAW by Ronatch, on Flickr
 
I like the fence where it is to be honest Ronald & i like the trees & mist very simple shot not over fussy...... just downloaded the bigger version from your flickr & will play with it tomorrow see what i would do with it

Cheers

Daz
 
Like I said earlier, I pass this every day and it has seemed to have potential when
there is fog. I will be very interested to see what you come up with.
Thanks a great deal.
Ron
 
edit2small.jpg


edit3small.jpg


hows are they ??

Played around with photoshop & silver efex pluggin, then run through noise ninja, dont ask me what i done i just played around with sliders until i liked the over feel to the shot

Daz
 
Hi Ron, Hope you don't mind but I quite liked the image but was not sure on the PP so I had a go too. Wasn't sure that high key was the way to go but did like the grain in the image. I would have liked to of picked out a bit more detail of the trunks of the trees in the background just as you did but the information was not in the jpeg available on Flickr.

6976504294_bfc527a1c9_b-1.jpg
 
Fantastic. I really appreciate ya'll taking time to work on this.
I think Darren's square format is interesting but wonder if it's
possible to get more depth out of the 3x2 ?? What did hit me
right between the eyes was the apparent cental light sorce. I
love it. When I first saw this scene, the fog was much more dense.
The white fence somehow stood out in a sea of white so I think
I want to stay with high key. Somehow Paul has managed an old
time rustic feel that fits where this was taken "right down to the ground".
Maybe I need to work with the jpeg rather than the tiff ?
Thank you again for helping. It won't be earth shattering but now I might
be able to make something of this :)
Ron
 
Tricky one Ron. I like the square crop that Darren tried and that helps the balance between the fence and the tree. It seems difficult to apply grain to this shot for some reason and it certainly needs a delicate touch to get a high-key result. This version was done using the colour JPEG and SilverFX pro. I suspect the Detail Extractor in ColorFX 4 would be a useful tool to try to. This is a straight Pan F simulation (and decreasing the grain : pixel ratio to compensate for the small size of the fie) but using a green filter to reduce the contrast between the tree, grass and the rest of the scene to emphasise the high-key look. I then applied a light selenium tone and increased the highlights slightly using a curves adjustment. Like Paul, I felt a crop balanced the composition better.

6976504294_bfc527a1c9_c-1.jpg
 
Last edited:
Pete,
You and Darren and Paul have not only helped me with this image,
you've taught me things that , hopefully , I can remember to use on
future images. It makes perfect sense to use the green filter to lower
the contrast and I understand how it works. Unfortunately, until you
pointed it out, I would not have thought to use it. So much to learn,
so little time.
Greatly appreciated :)
Ron
 
This is a result of the thinking I've done on this after considering
the help from everyone. Still not a great image but I can't tell ya'll
how much I learned from your help. More people should do this more
often. It is a great learning tool.
Thank you.
Ron


Best46RawB&W by Ronatch, on Flickr
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top