Care I if me Ask

Image Critiques Weekly Challenge
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care I if me Ask
care I if me Ask2000×1500 1.58 MB

If you couldn’t tell from my last image that I like my monochrome shots to be very bold, this one will help tell that story. I like deep rich blacks and nearly clipped whites (if a little bit clips I don’t mind).

I was in Jean Lafitte National Historic Park & Preserve near New Orleans. It’s basically a swamp with lots of walkways and bridges. This was a tall one and I was looking straight down. Some folks I talked to saw this behemoth come into the area under the bridge then disappear. Well it didn’t, they just didn’t lean out enough to see it. Probably a 7-8 footer. Biggest I saw while in Louisiana since it was cold for reptiles to be out and it was overcast and rainy.

Processing started with a basic Adobe B&W conversion then I played with the color sliders a lot to get the luminance up enough to frame the gator in white. I also cranked the clarity slider considerably more than I usually do since the lighting was so flat when I took it.

Specific Feedback Requested

Is it too weird? Can you tell what it is?

Technical Details

Is this a composite: No
Lumix G9
Lumix G Vario 35-100mm f/2.8 @ 66mm
f/5.6 | 1/100 sec | ISO 200
Handheld

Lr processed for everything.

@the.wire.smith
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Definitely a gator, but the leaf across its snout made it a puzzle on the thumbnail, for me. Purely my take, but I’d like to see a bit more detail in the lightest and darkest areas. Great find!

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Thanks @Diane_Miller - I can rework it to give you that. Do you think it’s sharpening/clarity/texture or just too much or too little luminance? I can play with it.

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Kris, this is very stark (as you intended), with the darkness and the directly down view making it hard to tell that the subject is a gator. I suggest pulling back the brights a bit so that the big leaves, especially in the upper right, so a bit more detail.

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If you love it as it is, by all means leave it alone – it’s yours! But if you want to experiment to see if a little more detail will still keep it within your high-contrast vision, I’m guessing Clarity could be a culprit, as it increases contrast over small distances. Starting with a slightly lower-contrast would let Clarity work its magic without overwhelming lights and darks.