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Don Railton
07-07-2013, 06:24 AM
Hello all, I have been playing with Nik Silver Effects trying to get this image right. Unfortunately all that happened was my brain got fuddled with all the options... I like the 'look' of this when I was doing it but if I give it the 'walk away and come back' test I will want to change it.. This been going on for hours now..!! Arghhhh I need views on what others think.. I Know I have lots to learn about B&W (especially) so be as blunt as you like. 1/125 @ F4, iso 1600. 1D4 + 50mm F1.4 prime, hand held. Some cropped off the bottom..., Image sprinkled with torn hair... regards DON

Steve Kaluski
07-07-2013, 12:13 PM
Hey Don, I like it because it's different and this has a 'human' element in it which I think is rather refreshing.

I'm viewing on my MacBook pro so not ideal, but to me it looks flat in tone and needs some clarity in it. To me I feel people think SilverEffects is the 'silver bullet' and unless you tame it, you will apply everything & anything, going round in circles, LOL. I would have gone to PS and converted to B/W as it does a good job, then played with some Curves to bring some tonal contrast into the image. In my limited knowledge I do think you have to think differently for B/W and sometimes converting colour to B/W may not always work, because it hasn't the 'tonality' within it, i that makes sense? :w3

Don if you drop me a PM with your email I'll fwd a thought.

TF
Steve

Don Railton
07-07-2013, 07:11 PM
Hello Steve, PM on the way.. Thanks for the thoughts, it occurred to me last night after posting that if I went back to the basics in PS I might be a lot better off, especially so until I get a bit more experience with B&W under my belt.. DON

Anette Mossbacher
07-08-2013, 08:17 AM
Hi Don,

Steve is right with his thoughts and more contrast. Pushing the whites and blacks. Curious with what RP you will come up. I played a bit with it, but would prefer to have the color version.

Ciao
Anette

Jerry van Dijk
07-08-2013, 09:09 AM
Hi Don, couldn't agree more with the others. An image like this (and maybe most B/W images) are about contrast and structure (the former adding to the latter). You've got 4 components with different structures in your image: the clouds, the water, the sand and the stones in the wall. Adding clarity and tonal range will emphasize the structure of each element and hence will emphasize the differences between them. I often find myself using HDR or pseudo HDR to get the effect I want, but from what I've seen from others here it's possible to get similar results on a regular image in Silvereffex.
Does this make sense? I find that I have some difficulty putting this into words.
You have some strong compositional lines in your image, so I'm very curious to see what you can come up with! I might add bird to the title as well, and there might even be a man with fish on the right hand side too :w3

Rachel Hollander
07-08-2013, 10:57 AM
Hi Don - I like the placement of the wall and the human. You've gotten some excellent advice about b&w. One thing no one has mentioned is that even handheld I think you would be able to create sharp images with that kit at slower ss. I would have stopped down a few stops in the field to get greater dof.

TFS,
Rachel

Don Railton
07-09-2013, 05:13 AM
Thanks to all for the assistance... Its pretty consistent which unfortunately for me means i am missing the basics...:e3 I am away on holiday at the moment in Queensland so the RP will have to wait until I return as I dont have the files and only a laptop with me... The good news is that I hope to have plenty of photographic opportunities in front of me while away so maybe I can post something worthy of his great site on my return. Rachel, yes I agree, i could/should have gone at least two stops slower for more DOF...

DON

Andrew McLachlan
07-09-2013, 07:26 PM
Hi Don, I like the scene and the B&W conversion is almost there. As Anette suggests pushing the blacks and whites. My initial thought when I viewed the image was to increase the blacks. Looking forward to your repost!

Vivaldo Damilano
07-10-2013, 12:34 PM
Hi Don, I agree with above comment, would go with more contrast, the image looks a bit flat to me. The comp works very nicely, like the clouds too.

Don Railton
07-21-2013, 05:56 AM
Hello All. Just back from 10 days holiday and now have had a chance to reprocess this image and following the advice & critiques which were pretty consistent. Thanks again to all who provided assistance. I have reprocessed this in CS6 only by optimising each slider within the 'B&W layer' to maximise the detail and then using a 'brightness & contrast' layer to add the (apparently) much needed contrast. I do like the RP more than the OP so here is one more salute to all the helpful participants on this site... Regards to you all DON

Anette Mossbacher
07-21-2013, 06:44 PM
Hi Don,

this looks much better. I might would even push more the blacks in the clouds as well. But that depends how moody it was that day or how moody you would like to have the image!
That is up to you. But the RP is much better than your OP :bg3:
The whites along the beach, the water. I would push that a bit more, as for me that leads to the man with the dog :w3

Have a great week

Ciao

Anette :wave:

Don Railton
07-21-2013, 09:12 PM
Thanks Anette. Sometimes its hard to know where to stop, but I will look to push further and see what I think. Interesting to note that Steve K sent me a PM with a variant of this image that has more contrast that my RP, and is along the lines you are suggesting..

DON

Morkel Erasmus
07-25-2013, 03:17 PM
Don, I can only add that your repost is leagues ahead of the OP. Now it's got some mood and character.