Old Man of Stoer

[Tomas_Frydrych]

Critique Style Requested: Standard

The photographer is looking for generalized feedback about the aesthetic and technical qualities of their image.

Description

I have been meaning to explore this location for a while, and got one day on a recent week long stay in the area that was workable due to weather. I did not do a prior recce, but been at the location a few times before and from memory was expecting to be working at a fairly close range, so brought three wide lenses, plus my preferred landscape 210mm lens (~70mm FF equivalent), with hindsight, this proved to be less than ideal. Also by the time I got to this location, which I wasn’t aware of, I only had film for one shot. My initial plan was to shoot from a position slightly to the left, with the boulder being just out of frame at the BRC, and the stack being less centered. I was all setup of this farily conventional composition, but then succumbed to the foreground boulder cliche, that is so hard to resist when working with a large format camera. I should note, that there is limited scope at positioning the camera, it is as far right as I could go (cliff edge), there is some socpe for moving left (~3m), and the area the boulder is in is not easily accessible (I am ~3m above it).

Specific Feedback

I am looking particularly for feedback on the composition with a view to reshooting at a later date. Would you scacrifice the boulder for the sake of more ‘single subject’ image? Would you prefer a wider point of view? Or perhaps I should forget about the foreground, and go for a longer focal length yet?

Technical Details

Large format camera (4x5), B&W film. Shot with 210mm lens (~70mm FF eq), linear polariser and Y12 filters, f32 @ 2 elephants (includes 1s reciprocity compensation). The LinPol was used to control water reflections, the Y12 primarily to bring out a yellow lichen that is on the FG rocks. Some front tilt and swing used to control focus plane. In post I did a slight burn of the top of the sky, and slight doge of front face of the boulder.

[Paul_Breitkreuz]

Some fine work here, Tomas. The detail, DOF, and focus throughout is excellent. The only loss of focus or detail is the moving water which is natural and totally expected. Nicely done…

[Egídio (Egídio Leitão)]

Tomas, this is a fine photograph. Your choice of B&W was really well thought out to highlight the stack and ocean surroundings.

@Tomas_Frydrych

then succumbed to the foreground boulder cliche, that is so hard to resist when working with a large format camera

I do not personally think that succumbing to the rock in the FG cliche is an issue. It may help with a grounding point of view. Here, in this photo, though, the FG is taking half of the frame. I think that is detrimental to the beauty you’re presenting. That large boulder competes with the stack. I would love to see other compositions with less pronounced FG presence. I understand that the location, as you described it, can make it challenging. Since you plan on reshooting this later, I would encourage you to think of possibilities. You can try, for example, to keep the FG to a third or less of the frame height. Perhaps just eliminating the larger boulder from the frame and using the rest of the non-descriptive rock as a grounding element. I look forward to seeing what you come up with in future revisits to this location. You got yourself a beautiful scene with plenty of drama in the water and rock cliffs.

[Brian_Schrayer]

I like your composition. I think the foreground gives the image a nice sense of depth and dimension. I l also like the processing in your black and white conversion as it has a nice tonal range throughout the scene.

[Tomas_Frydrych]

For completeness, here is a 16x12 silver gelatine print from the negative. I decided to keep it simple, grade 3 exposure, slight burn of the sky, brief overall bleaching, and selenium toner. (The iPad camera is not great, but the print is very sharp.)