The photographer is looking for thoughtful feedback on the image as a whole, especially around the areas noted below.
Feedback Focus: Artistic + Technical
About This Image
This was from a photography workshop in July, my first time on the Oregon Coast, and was shot at Seal Rock. The huge basalt cliffs seemed to me more impactful in black-and-white. The lone gull flying apart from the colony made this photo for me.
Feedback Requested
I’d appreciate feedback on whether the technical choices support what I was trying to express, the feeling of being alone, in solitude. For this image I had just learned how to use the channel mixer + curves layers to convert to black and white. The previous version I’d used Nik Silver Efex, but I found when zoomed in a lot of wormy artifacts in the rock faces.
Technical Details
Camera: OM-1MarkII
Lens: OM 40-150mm F4.0-5.6 R
Focal length: 150mm
Shutter speed: 1/640s
Aperture: f/10
ISO: 200
Perfect in B&W… Catching just one gull coming off the Rocks is very cool. The Simplicity and the Tone really drew my eyes to this image. You caught this with perfect timing Debbie. I love those kinda shots. I call them Grab Shots and Get them when you can.
Yes, @debbie_campbell the black and white is the way to go. Glad you can now join the B/W club. Whole new possibilities open up.
As far as tones and processing, I think you did a very nice job. Nothing strikes me as needing to be lightened or darkened. I do like the overall space and the framing of the lone gull as you have it. Though, something interesting happens with cropping on an image like this. By going in tighter, and having it head out of the frame, sets it apart a bit more. Not saying this is the way to go with this, just thought it might give you ideas on how that could help/change the story a bit. Nice.
I like the black and white, Debbie. It really brings out the detail in the rock, Patrick’s crop definitely changes the story. I could see a third version with even more of the rock. I like the solitary gull. I wonder if more space would heighten the mood you’re going for.
An interesting image, Debbie. It inevitably reminded me of images of other oceanic rocks from the early bird photographers. I think your composition works nicely, though I’ll admit to also liking the revision that @patrick6 came up with. There are certainly lots of ways to go with an image like this.
