(If this is a composite, etc. please be honest with your techniques to help others learn)
Hi Pat,
I am not sure what you are asking for, but I will assume it is a preference for one image or the other. The B&W treatment works very nicely and has a wide range of tones. My preference is for the second version because the tones are much richer whereas the first version is a little muddy in the midtones IMO. Great first post and I hope to see more.
Thanks Ed…yes the second is the preferred one to post. I had some confusion on the posting as a new member but look forward to posting and reading more…love your site.
Pat
Looks good. I might lighten the shadows and pulls out some shadow detail in the second, but otherwise, it looks really good. I prefer all other aspects of the second one. I love the look of the water and the fore rocks. Fine first post! Welcome aboard.
Hi Pat - Welcome to NPN! I also prefer the second image and agree with Harley about lightening the shadow slightly.
Hi again thanks for the great comments. Any thoughts about the image overall? I go back and forth on this shot and sometimes I love it and other times not so much.
Hi Pat,
Like those above, I prefer the second, slightly darker version. I like the overall composition, the tonality in the foreground rocks and water, and the crop. Great choice of shutter speed to give the water just the right amount of blur.
I looks to me like you used a graduated neutral density filter to darken the sky. If it was a “real” filter on the lens, this image points out the problem with using ND grads on scenes that don’t have a straight horizon - the tops of the rocks above the horizon line went way dark. If you used the Graduated Filter in Lightroom, you could use the Range Mask feature to limit the Luminosity effect to just the sky, without darkening the rocks.
This is a really nice photo, and the black and white conversion works very well.
Welcome aboard, Pat. I like the subject of your image and I am drawn to it as I live just a few miles from the Pacific. Here are some overall comments for you. You have captured a beautiful low tide. The long shutter speed and filter have created a rolling soft spell to the water and provided some nice smooth highlights especially on the foreground rocks. The small sandbar on the left side adds an important element to the image and I might want to see more of that. Love the sharpness and texture the barnacles add to the rocks. The sea stacks and island rocks look like the crests of mountains and are a great background. Would agree with Harley on the shadows and detail but pick your spots and not too much. The sea water starting along the left side seems too bright and I might play with toning that down a bit. A nice gray gradient to the sky, not much going on with it though. If it had clouds,. I would want more balance and weight from it. There is a circular splotch in the left sky area probably from a spot removal tool, it is more easily seen when viewing the larger image. I don’t shoot B/W too much but have recently found out they are a good way to go on low light days along a rock coast line. You have a strong image with lots of visual interest. Most of my viewing was done on the darker second image Look forward to more from your Oregon coast.
Stehphen and Greg…thanks for all of the very valuable input. This is exactly the type of input I was looking for…lots of specifics that will prompt me to explore areas of PP that I need to develop. It also helps me get a bit more comfortable with the image in general as it is B&W and somewhat of a unique perspective.
I am becoming a big fan of NPN as its a great resource. Thanks to Matt Payne for prompting me to take a look.
