I’m preparing to visit southern Utah again and was reviewing some photos taken there. I reworked this photo, taken almost two years ago in February. I would love some feedback about exposure and the black and white points. Overall, is it too dark or too light? I don’t have the black point set at maximum (using the levels slider) because it seemed too black. What do you think? Blacker blacks? How about the white point? Does it seem OK? Is the “blue” sky too dark? Thanks!
Hi Tony,
This is a very “contrasty” scene. I would be inclined to go with a slightly lighter sky, but I do like the separation between sky and clouds…Jim
This is nicely done, Tony. The black point looks just fine to me. I could see the white point raised just a touch as the snow looks a little grey. Good luck on your upcoming trip to Utah. BTW, the sky looks fine to me.
The shadow cast on the mountain makes very interesting tonal variation, Tony. The only thing I would suggest is cleaning up what might look like haloing around the ridgeline to the right of the white mountain peak. I also think the sky black point is fine.
Hi @Tony_Siciliano, an other fantastic shot. I love the contrast, the peak looks gorgeous. In my opinion you could try to dark the shadows on the foreground and add vignette to bring the eye on the peak. Thanks for sharing.
Tony,
Great looking b&w. I especially like how the peak stands out against the darker, AA style sky. I think the whites and blacks, contrast all look good.
Question I have… what was wrong with the color? To me, this scene doesn’t evoke monochrome to me - but color. Still, this does like quite good as you’ve presented it. I would agree on a slight vignette, especially in the lower corners.
Lon
Tony, I think this looks great in B&W, in addition to the dramatic clouds, the foreground landscape has some interesting tonal variation that translates well to B&W. I think your processing of exposure, contrast, white point and black point look fine overall. I also like the strong contrast in the mountain, it makes it very prominent looking.
This is subjective personal taste, but I do think the blue sky is slightly too dark. In reading comments on color images posted here, we often see critiques that say in processing images one generally wants to avoid having skies darker than the landscape. In B&W one can often “get away” with more darkening of blue skies for dramatic effect. Here I think it is just a bit too strong. One reason is that I think the dark sky and the dark part of the mountain don’t have enough tonal separation, and a lighter sky would separate the mountain better.
Thanks for all the replies! Lon, here is a jpg copy of the unedited raw file. It just didn’t seem interesting enough to me to do a color edit.
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Tony,
Thanks for posting original. I agree with you. Perhaps in the summer with green foothills, or some autumn color in some aspens or something, then the color would take a better hold.
Good call