BW - the photographer, the fig tree and the ship

[biggerry]

In my quest for BW goodness, sometimes after the fact I find a image that appears to work better as BW. I really try hard not to just try BW when I don't like image in the hope it will make it better, rather try and pick scenes and shots that lend themselves to the BW conversion.

Here is another I am interested in thoughts on. I like all teh elements thrown in, the person on the left (photographer), the small empty seat and the boat. This was teh second shot after realising that positioning the sun in the tree created some nice rays.

Critique, good bad and fugly welcome

[Steffen]

I reckon it's often worth trying a BW conversion. If you think of colour as an additive and ask yourself, "does colour enhance the central message of the image?" you sometimes find that it doesn't. Gifted photographers can answer this question before even hitting the shutter release, but plonkers like me are thankful to have those options to play with after the fact.

I like your image in BW, even though it's hard to judge whether it would have been better in colour without seeing it. What makes the image for me is the sun in the tree. The ambition you had for the empty seat does not really come to fruition, as the seat is hardly noticeable in the image. I like the idea, but the bench would have to be put into scene much more prominently, though leading lines, light, contrast or whatever means.

Overall I think it's a good image, the soft flowing ground and curves of the tree punctured by the sun spikes make it very attractive.

Cheers
Steffen.

[Murray Foote]

I really like the tree and the sunlight coming through and the lone walker and the park bench and the general composition.

What I find for me doesn't work so well is that my eye keeps going to the LIDO on the side of the ship. Removing the lettering might help. It may be a sacrilege to suggest it but I also think the image may improve if you crop in to the right of the tree to the left of the ship. You lose the park bench but in the new image you focus much better on the tree, the sunlight and the walker.

[aim54x]

I love the rays coming through the tree.....simply glorious! But it feels slightly too HDRish for my overall liking. I would be tempted to knock back the exposure slightly and see what I get.

Do you have a colour variant?

[Reschsmooth]

I love the rays coming through the tree.....simply glorious! But it feels slightly too HDRish for my overall liking. I would be tempted to knock back the exposure slightly and see what I get.

Again, due to laziness, I am outsourcing my feedback.

[aim54x]

Again, due to laziness, I am outsourcing my feedback.

[Mj]

Pretty much what Steffen said...
You could always play with the title... call it 'LIDO' and let the viewer work out why.

[Matt. K]

Gerry
The image has some lovely elements and the conversion to B&W is very fine. The image is lacking a real point of interest and needs something in the bottom right foreground area. What you have there is a superb background for something special yet to be photographed.Go back and take abeautiful model with a bicycle and a greyhound. Play with it.

[Matt. K]

Hey Garry!
Everytime I post something with the 3 letters mod in it the letters come up green??? Like modus operandi..

[biggerry]

I reckon it's often worth trying a BW conversion. If you think of colour as an additive and ask yourself, "does colour enhance the central message of the image?" you sometimes find that it doesn't. Gifted photographers can answer this question before even hitting the shutter release, but plonkers like me are thankful to have those options to play with after the fact.

I like your image in BW, even though it's hard to judge whether it would have been better in colour without seeing it. What makes the image for me is the sun in the tree. The ambition you had for the empty seat does not really come to fruition, as the seat is hardly noticeable in the image. I like the idea, but the bench would have to be put into scene much more prominently, though leading lines, light, contrast or whatever means.

Overall I think it's a good image, the soft flowing ground and curves of the tree punctured by the sun spikes make it very attractive.

Cheers
Steffen.

Cheers Steffen, teh crux of it is really the seat ain't big enough or more correctly not close enough to the camera. With regards to 'seeing' BW images, whilst it would be great to just have this ability, i think if you started off in colour then it takes some effort and re-training to really be able to picture and plan and see an sucessful image in BW, those who started in BW or used it more extensively in teh film days certainly have a advantage..

I really like the tree and the sunlight coming through and the lone walker and the park bench and the general composition.

What I find for me doesn't work so well is that my eye keeps going to the LIDO on the side of the ship. Removing the lettering might help. It may be a sacrilege to suggest it but I also think the image may improve if you crop in to the right of the tree to the left of the ship. You lose the park bench but in the new image you focus much better on the tree, the sunlight and the walker.

lol, nice spotting Murray, it does stick out a bit, however did not bother me as such (to start wih anyway), however now that you have really pointed it out it's hard to get outta my head! Good poitn about the crop, i suspected this might be a improvement on the image, even at the expensive of losing the bench as a element.

I love the rays coming through the tree.....simply glorious! But it feels slightly too HDRish for my overall liking. I would be tempted to knock back the exposure slightly and see what I get.
Do you have a colour variant?

fair call, i do have a colour version, but i do not like it - whilst it has a large dynamic range, i find having the texture and detail on the shadow side of the tree really makes the image.

Again, due to laziness, I am outsourcing my feedback.

nothing wrong with that

Pretty much what Steffen said...
You could always play with the title... call it 'LIDO' and let the viewer work out why.

Thanks Mj, thats agood idea with teh title - never woulda thought of that.

Gerry
The image has some lovely elements and the conversion to B&W is very fine. The image is lacking a real point of interest and needs something in the bottom right foreground area. What you have there is a superb background for something special yet to be photographed.Go back and take abeautiful model with a bicycle and a greyhound. Play with it.

Thanks matt, the conversion and BW option is really the bit I am interested in, i agree with teh empty space on the right, cropping may solve this to an extent.

However playign with a model, bike and greyhound sounds like alotta fun, do i have take photos of that

thanks for the feedback guys.