Critique Welcomed Mono

[Paul Lange]

I have been working on my BW workflow rather than just using the same one for colour and then just removing the colour. I have also been working on split toning to try to get it just right. These are some older photos I found after searching my LR catalogue for images I thought would work better in mono.


_DSC0882-Edit.jpg by Paul R Lange, on Flickr
This is from Lode Mill near Cambridge, a water powered flour mill that has been restored to working order. Some days you can see it working and they even sell the flour.



_DSC0879-Edit.jpg by Paul R Lange, on Flickr
This is some of the machinery in the lower part of the mill. The texture of the photo is not from the PP but caused by the flour dust that covers pretty much everything.



DSC_0064-Edit.jpg by Paul R Lange, on Flickr
A statue, I think the only one in Sabratha, A Roman city close to Azzawiya in Libya.

 

[Beth Carter]

great comps., the first has some great light, but i like the close crop and details of the second.

the processing on the first has the best contrast. not sure what your lr procedure is, but instead of hitting the b&w button at the top try moving the saturation slider to -100. this lets you adjust the wb, which has some interesting effects on the tones.

 

[Pete Askew]

Well, whatever your process is, it's working very well I think as these are superb. Lost a couple of highlights in the first but I suspect they disappeared at capture. Nice toning too.

 

[Paul Lange]

Thanks Beth, I will give that a go. A top tip.

Cheers Pete, the highlights were unrecoverable. If I remember correctly the sun was pretty fierce outside that day but as it was taken quite a while ago I probably just used matrix metering and didn't think about it too much.

 

[Glenn Clabo]

I really like the tone of the first Paul. The comp...dof...very sets a nice mood. Nice.
It really is true...good B&W isn't just about removing the color. Sometimes I set out just trying to see B&W. My crazy mind is a hindrance though. Trying to think different than all those engineers through out my career may have screwed me up.

 

[Rob MacKillop]

Really nice, Paul. I was going to say the second needed more definition, but then I read your comment about the flour being everywhere. very nice shots, though.

 

[Shane Johns]

I like the first two compositions very much...I love the first one actually! I would have gone to town with more shadows and light, but that's just me - I'm a light maniac!

Did I say I really loved the first one?

 

[Paul Lange]

Thanks, Glenn, Rob, Shane (and belated welcome to RPF too). I have no real established workflow for BW. I think later on once I can look at these with a new set of eyes I might redo the PP from scratch just to see what happens.

 

[Paul Lange]

I have dodged and burned areas on these two and to my eyes they both seem to have a bit more impact. Just curious to see what you think?


_DSC0882-Edit.jpg by Paul R Lange, on Flickr




_DSC0879-Edit.jpg by Paul R Lange, on Flickr