I have been spending the past couple of months with an extension tube appreciating my wife’s love labor - the magnificent garden that she has spent the past decade creating. What I wanted to convey in this image was mystery, luminance and depth - what drew me to make this picture in the first place. I knew it would be monochrome from the start. I really wanted to get into the subtleties of texture and the topography of the leaves. I would certainly appreciate feedback on the extent to which I may have succeeded (or failed.)
Kerry: My wife is a master gardener and its great to have wonderful subjects right out the front door. This is an excellent conversion and a fine finished result. Keep 'em coming. >=))>
You have produced an extraordinary image. Great dof, detail, texture and lines which are accentuated by the b&w presentation. Congrats.
Beautiful, Kerry. I would be tempted to bring in the black point a bit, popping the contrast, but it looks pretty dang good. The B&W works really well and nice conversion.
Kerry, you are fortunate to have great subjects like this right in your backyard. The sense of depth created by the layers of leaves here is really nice. This is a great subject for B&W conversion, given the texture in the leaves.
My only suggestion for improvement relates to the upper right corner (URC). The URC feels like it has a little too much negative space, but i don’t see any way to crop some of that away without clipping important leaves in other parts of the image. Instead I might consider burning that area down to make it less intrusive. Not as dark as the ULC, but perhaps more like the LRC. But this is a minor tweak, overall you have a very pleasing image here.
My wife is thrilled that I took up photography . Finally, I’m getting the depth of what she’s been doing all these years. Thanks for your support, Bill, much appreciated.
Thanks, Patricia. Really appreciate your support.
@Harley_Goldman and @Ed_McGuirk. Thanks to you both for your support and suggestions. I am posting a slightly revised edition here. I wanted to be careful not to push it too far but I did follow your suggestion, Ed, and brought down the brightness in the URC. I also, by various means, tweaked a bit according to your suggestion, Harley, adding a bit more contrast to the lights and dropping the blacks just a tad. I think it is improved but I’d be interested in your take - too much, too little, just right?
I find the repost a subtle but noticeable improvement. I still like the original, I just like the repost a bit more.
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I agree with Harley, this is a subtle but very noticeable improvement. When one starts with a good image, tweaks usually only need to be subtle, but they still help.
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Monochrome is really working well for this image. I like the redo with slightly darker background better to give more emphasis to the in-focus, lighter leaves.
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Thanks, Tony, your feedback is always appreciated. Your monochrome work has been a great inspiration.