While Waiting

[John_Williams]

Original version:

Version with no toning:

Critique Style Requested: Standard

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

Description

Even though it’s been shot to pieces, I still enjoy visiting the amazing sea stacks at Bandon on the Oregon Coast. I hung out there this past New Year’s Eve, because the conditions looked reasonable for sunset color. The sky never exploded, only developing a few thin bands of color, but while I waited I played with taking photos that I hoped might work in black and white.

Specific Feedback

This is a simple, straightforward, composition of Wizard’s Hat. I was trying to catch a mix of a wave sweeping in and the reflection. How does the balance of those look? If you have any thoughts on processing, I’d appreciate those too.

Technical Details

NIKON Z 7II
NIKKOR Z 14-30 f/4S at 23.0 mm
1.3 sec. at f/16.0 and ISO 31
(The ISO 31 was an accident. I over adjusted and didn’t catch it until later.)

[John_Williams]

Sometimes I think it’s easier to comment on processing if I know what the options were in the first place.

In case that’s true for others too, here’s the sidecar jpg:

…and this is what I pulled from the raw converter into Photoshop:

[Gary_Hook]

Super vision here. It may have been shot plenty of times, but you can never duplicate what someone else has done. It’s nice to see your vision.

Lovely composition, awesome sky, great beach. Super processing IMO. I think you could justify more contrast on the rock, and maybe lower contrast/a bit of clarity in the clouds. I think you could add clarity to the beach to give it more drama and texture.

The only thing that bothers me are the white bits in the reflection. They distract me eye.

But all of that is because I like drama in my B&W images. I’m only making suggestions based on my taste. Your image is gorgeous.

[Susanna_Euston]

Hi John,

It really is an interesting rock formation! I see what your goal was with this image. The water flow and reflection, as well as the clouds, work. What I can’t get past is the centeredness of the rock. It doesn’t work for me. I played with it in Photoshop, cropping slightly from the left to shift the rock and to focus the cloud mass on the left (I don’t think it distracts from the rock).

I also increased the contrast a tad to help the rock stand out a bit more from the sky, and did a very minimal vignetting of the top corners.

I’ve attached it to this email. Hope it comes through to the website.

Hope this is helpful. Feel free to ignore!!

| John Williams Landscape Moderator
March 4 |

• | - |

Critique Style Requested: Standard

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

Description

Even though it’s been shot to pieces, I still enjoy visiting the amazing sea stacks at Bandon on the Oregon Coast. I hung out there this past New Year’s Eve, because the conditions looked reasonable for sunset color. The sky never exploded, only developing a few thin bands of color, but while I waited I played with taking photos that I hoped might work in black and white.

Specific Feedback

This is a simple, straightforward, composition of Wizard’s Hat. I was trying to catch a mix of a wave sweeping in and the reflection. How does the balance of those look? If you have any thoughts on processing, I’d appreciate those too.

Technical Details

NIKON Z 7II
NIKKOR Z 14-30 f/4S at 23.0 mm
1.3 sec. at f/16.0 and ISO 31
(The ISO 31 was an accident. I over adjusted and didn’t catch it until later.)

[Scott_Fricke]

This is a gorgeous image John! The B&W processing looks spot on to me. I like the softness of the middle ground water contrasting with the texture of the rock formation and the smoothness of the foreground . The sky is also interesting with the varied cloud formation and darkness. I also like the diagonal lines of the water and the clouds, especially the ones on the right, they combine to give a sense of depth to the image. Very nicely composed all around. The only very, very minor nit might be the reflection of the tower gets a little close to the bottom of thee frame, but that could just be my personal preference, I always seem to like the same distance between the object and the frame on top and bottom.

[Mark_Seaver]

John, your presentation here looks very good. Considering where you started, you’ve got excellent details in the Wizard’s Hat. I also very much like the sense of movement (almost an explosion) that the clouds provide. The centeredness doesn’t bother me at all, it seems fitting and it emphasizes the rock and it’s reflection. I also like that you’ve got wetness to the bottom of the frame, which helps show off the reflections. I could possibly see some darks burning of the reflection to reduce the grey of the sand showing through.

[dgh (Doug Hoover)]

Definitely B&W is the right call. I think it creates a much more dramatic photo. The sky and corresponding water reflection depict a real sense of movement. I’m not bothered at all about the stack being in the center. Well done.

[Stephen_Stanton]

Well John I just don’t know what to say… but I’ll give it a go. I am not that big a fan of B&W images. My original response to b&w was " Oh a b&w image it must be exceptionally dramatic " And later when I shot images (at the shore mostly) on drabby overcast days where there was so much gray around in the water and sky color and very little color, I saw them as probably getting a better capture of the scene than a color rendering.
Back to your image though. Center frame of the stack feels right and looks right. Good craggy definition in the stack itself. The sky is excellent for the rock and low tide. Nice job of timing with the white wash wave in the reflection. Overall for a b&w I would want darker contrasts like in the shadowy reflection of the stack and maybe more highlights in the whitewash. I t does balance with the sky very nicely.

On a more personal and subjective bias, I was more drawn to the second “blue image” with the softer tones in the sky and wave. All that said, I like the look of your Hat.

[Igor_Doncov]

I think what works so well for this image is that the clouds curve in a similar manner as the hat. All of those curves generate a lot of energy and tension. With all that going for you in the sky and rock do you really need the reflection? I would say no but that would result in a squarish aspect ratio and this subject calls for a vertical. This is exceptionally well done.
I can’t think of a thing to change.

[Michael_Lowe]

Sweet! This image comes across really crisp and non digital looking on my computer. I love how the cloud on the left mimics the curve in the hat. Since it’s darker than the clouds on the right, I might be tempted to burn them a little.

[Glenys_Passier]

The hat may have been photographed to pieces, it’s still fresh to me.

I love the rock, and being centred doesn’t bother me at all. (To me if it were closer to the left edge, the lovely arrow in the cloud would be a little too close to the edge. ) My favourite part of the image is the way the water is rushing over the sand and the movement that it portrays. Beauitfully done.

[Ed_Lowe]

Hi John,
Even though it has been done a couple of times I still enjoy a good rendition of the Wizard’s Hat and this certainly falls in that category. I figure the clouds are never the same nor are the water patterns or reflections. I do prefer the B&W version as I think that portrays the drama laden sky better. What do you think about a slight blue toning in the B&W. I think that would work as well. My only real suggestion would be just a little more breathing room along the bottom edge for the cap. Beautifully done.

[John_Williams]

Thank you @Gary_Hook , @Susanna_Euston , @Scott_Fricke , @Mark_Seaver , @dgh , @Stephen_Stanton , @Igor_Doncov , @Michael_Lowe , @Glenys_Passier , and @Ed_Lowe !

@Gary_Hook thanks for all the suggestion. I’ll go back and play with those.

@Susanna_Euston I hear you about the centered composition. I’m typically not a fan myself. I did take a couple of photos with more room on the right, but that right edge becomes cluttered with distant sea stacks (you can see in the originals there are the edges of a couple that I cropped out in the posted version) and I found that distracting when included. There’s a sea stack to the left of where I was standing that limits moving too far left, and for some reason that sweeping curve of the rock looked weird to me when placed right of center. I was very much chasing the curve of the cloud with the curve of the rock (as @Igor_Doncov kindly pointed out), and moving the rock to the left in the photo cut off more of that than I wanted. No good excuses, just the reasons I ended up going centered. I’ll go back and play with cropping as you’ve suggested. I never tried cloning out those right-side rocks and keeping that real estate, so I’ll see what effect that has too.

@Scott_Fricke

I always seem to like the same distance between the object and the frame on top and bottom.

Interesting, as I sometimes purposefully make them asymmetric. Good to know!

@Mark_Seaver

I could possibly see some darks burning of the reflection to reduce the grey of the sand showing through.

@Stephen_Stanton

darker contrasts like in the shadowy reflection of the stack

To clarify, you mean just the reflection itself darker? I never thought of that, and will play with it.

@Igor_Doncov

the clouds curve in a similar manner as the hat

Thanks for noticing, since that was definitely a compositional chase I was having. As I tried to get the wave just right, I had to keep moving clockwise around the rock since the clouds were moving rapidly right to left

@Michael_Lowe

I might be tempted to burn them a little.

Another great idea I didn’t think of. I’ll play with that.

@Ed_Lowe

What do you think about a slight blue toning in the B&W.

I chuckled when I read this. In all but rare cases, I prefer slightly toned black and whites to images with no color. In the vast majority of cases, I prefer cool toning as you suggest. It’s so common that I do that, that I have an action built that adds a group of two curves, one that adds blue (highlights more than shadows) and a second that adds cyan (although less than the blue, and more to the midtones). I find it makes snow image pop a bit more, and can add a slight “silver” affect to midtones. I added that to this image. After putting it to bed for a day I went back and decided I would like even more cooling then normal, and so I duplicated those curves to double down. By this point it had enough tint that I slightly toned the frame so it wouldn’t look yellow in contrast; I worried I had gone too far. Obviously, I was too conservative

[Gary_Hook]

@Igor_Doncov I had a shot of Haystack Rock (Oregon coast) critiqued once, and got beat up badly because I didn’t include the reflection, or something else of interest in what was essentially a landscape shot with a low horizon and glorious, angry clouds.

Therefore, I’m a fan of the reflection, as well as the surf.

[Gary_Hook]

@John_Williams I don’t typically pay attention to the histogram when I’m tweaking someone else’s image, but I went back to look at yours. Fascinating. Your toning works (to my eye) very well. I will now explore this technique.

[Bill_Fach]

John: One of my very most favorite places on the coast/planet and even though this is an iconic subject I never get tired of seeing images that bring my memories of the place to mind. This is a wonderful conversion and one you should be especially pleased with. >=))>

[Tom_Nevesely]

I don’t really have much to add to what’s already been said but I did want to at least say that I think you did a wonderful job on this image and the B&W processing is spectacular especially when compared to the out of camera jpg file.

[John_Williams]

Thank you @Bill_Fach and @Tom_Nevesely !

@Gary_Hook and @Ed_Lowe , I’m adding a version with no toningto the original post just for the fun of comparison. You can click back and forth between the original, toned, version and the version with no toning to see what you think.

[Marylynne_Diggs]

Hi John,
Not much to add beyond what has been said above. I do like the toning, and I like the way the reflection is distorted by wave action. That tension keeps me going up and down in the image. With the curve of the monolith and the push of the cloud, this has a very nautical feel to it, like a sail. I wonder if a slight crop off the left would add to the effect and give it the tension folks don’t feel in a centered image. Of course, there is something to be said for a rock, solid, standing front and center, while ominous clouds abound. Both possibilities work for me.
ML

[Paul_Holdorf]

I really like this image. It looks like you found a great angle to get the lines in the clouds to mimic the flow of the water in the foreground. I think the balance of lights to darks is good as well. I might have slide the Hat a bit to the right, which might accentuate the way the lines flow. I haven’t shot here though, might be a distracting element over there. Beautiful image!