City of Rocks National Preserve in Southeastern Idaho is a spectacular place, and was a major route in the California Trail in 1840-50. This is one of many vantage points I found one morning. The textures were much more interesting than the colors, so BW seems to be the way to portray it.
What technical feedback would you like if any?
What artistic feedback would you like if any?
I am very interested in any suggestions about portraying this scene
Pertinent technical details or techniques:
(If this is a composite, etc. please be honest with your techniques to help others learn)
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This does look like an interesting place, and your decision to process it in B&W was a good choice. The shapes and textures alone would have merited doing this in B&W, regardless of the color of the rocks. The foreground rocks have some very organic looking shapes, and are quite interesting. I like how bright a tonality you made the foreground rocks, it really makes them pop from the background.
While I like the image overall, my nitpick would be including just small bits of the horizon in the background, I find that distracting. In terms of that horizon I’d crop it away completely, or make a deliberate decision to include and show all of it. As presented, the horizon looks like it was included by accident. If the sky is bald, I would just go with cropping it away. I also see some potential for intimate abstract extractions of the shapes and patterns in the foreground rocks. I hope you took some of these as well while you were there.
Great looking rocks that jump nicely in B&W. I like the crop done by @Ed_McGuirk, as it really brings attention to what I see as the real core of the image.
Your choice for black and white is spot on with all of the wonderful textures. But I agree with Ed and Harley in that I feel you’ve tried for too much in one picture. I originally thought to crop out the horizon but I think Ed nailed it with his more radical crop. One of the things I’m learning in my own photography is to be ruthless in eliminating anything that obscures what the image is truly about. Naturally, especially if you plan to print your images, getting it right or close to right in camera is the ideal.
Thank you @Ed_McGuirk @Harley_Goldman @Kerry_Gordon . Yes I found a number of abstracts, so I appreciate the urging to go that direction. I am torn between the abstract, whose appeal is limited but intense when a connection is made, and the desire to share the story of this landscape. Same conflict exists in my next submission.
FYI @Ed_McGuirk @Harley_Goldman @Kerry_Gordon … Once I considered showing only the foreground, I felt less need to use BW, as the busyness of the rest of the image was not a factor. Also, the FG rocks have a lot of color. And once I got rid of the rest of the image, I just blew it away, leaving some negative space to play with. How does this work for you?
