The Farm #3

[Don Railton]

Hi Guys

This is a bit of an experiment for me... Both in B&W and the minimal content. Let me know what you think, be as tough as you like, and I have included the colour version to show where I started from and to show any warts in my approach. It's a wheat field adjacent to a farm my daughter is living on 3 hours South of Perth.

Techs;
1D4 & 18mm Zeiss Distagon HH.
1/60 sec at F16 ISO 200.
The image is ~70% of original, and I cropped a small bunch of trees of the skyline RH edge.
Processed in ACR in CS6, then converted to B&W using PS.

DON

[Don Railton]

here is the colour version..

[David Stephens]

I love the composition and prefer the B&W version, but long for more FG detail.

In the color version, the dead grass from a recent mowing, in the closest FG, bothers me, but drawing too much attention to itself. If it were mine, I'd try a 2:1 crop, with the dead vegetation cropped out.

[Don Railton]

Hi Dave

Thanks for the comments... to be clear the crop is very young wheat (has not been mown), and the "cut grass" is actually the ground where the crop has not grown as well.. I guess the fact that this is not obvious to you is problematic in itself.. I too had reservations about the large darkish area in the FG of the B&W, so I maintained the 1/3 FG 2/3 BG ratio as part of my experiment. I guess I can still maintain my 1/3rds ratios with a pano crop. This will bring more of the tree into the image which might work better for the image...

thanks again for the comments and good suggestion...

DON

[Don Railton]

Hi Dave

Had a look at the 2:1 crop along with a few tweeks to the tones to bring out more detail in the grass. I could not get rid of all the stone/gravel in the FG so I adjusted the red slider so they blended. I do think this crop places a lot more emphasis the horizon, which is a good thing IMHO. Thanks for you suggestions.

DON

[Diane Miller]

I liked the sky in the OP, both the treatment and the amount included -- here, it's overpowering the FG. This might be a case for double processing and masking. The FG is lacking in interest and might be a good candidate for even more crop and a gradient darkening from the bottom. It's role is to provide a base for the tree and the very interesting cloudscape.

[David Stephens]

I prefer the RP a lot, including the FG detail. Diane's suggestion about gradient darkening from the bottom seems very promising to me, taking the emphasis off the FG. I like the way this crop emphasizes the tree and sky and her suggestion might put even more emphasis there.

[Don Railton]

This is good stuff guys... thanks soooo much for commenting. I have been a bit single minded with the 1/3 fg & 2/3 sky ratio, time to let that go I think.. I can back the blue sliders off a little to soften the sky a little, then I might shift the 2:1 crop upwards to include more sky and less wheat... the darkening gradient also sounds like a nice thing to play with..

Thanks to you both for your help

DON

[Don Railton]

Thanks Peter... the dark FG in the OP was a concern for me too but 'an experiment' for me in gauging reactions..

thanks for your feedback.. will comment on lighting image a little later on today..

DON

[Andrew McLachlan]

Hi Don, I like the B&W conversion for this image and much prefer the repost. I am thinking that about half of the foreground could be cropped to create a much stronger comp. Looking forward to more experiments :S3:

[Don Nelson]

I prefer the repost - both the foreground detail showing, and the pano crop.
For me the tree, an interesting detail in the image, is too far away, and is apparently over the horizon with the left most branch intersecting the ground/horizon. If possible I would have moved to get a little separation there....but it looks like a new wheat crop, which means you weren't on the field but the edge? (and this would preclude moving closer to the tree while avoiding the ire of the farmer).
Using a longer lens to make the tree larger from the same location would just lose the overall sky area.
You might try a conversion that did not make the sky so dark -- we used to have such a problem with Black/White film when using a red filter -- and especially at higher altitudes ( >8000 feet in the mountains). Then the blues would go way too dark, similar to your conversion. At the AA workshop I attended in 1976, Ansel commented on one person's image with similar skies as being "nuclear skies"....

[Don Railton]

Hi Don

Thanks for your comments and observations... Yes, walking the paddock my not have been a good idea. Apparently my daughter tells me its oats, not wheat, not sure how you tell at this stage but.. So this is the last image I intend to post of this scene, and I have taken your suggestion and lightened the sky closer to that of the Op, kept the 2:1 ratio but moving the crop upwards to include all of the sky. I also used the virtual chainsaw and pruned the bottom of the tree to give separation of branches at the horizon. Something that I should have seen but did not. I went to a Landscape seminar last weekend and the separation of elements was the first thing the talker at this seminar was trying to hammer into us...

DON

[Don Nelson]

Don
I like the repost - and showing more of the sky and less of the field was key. The pruning on the tree helped substantially to isolate the tree from the ground rather than having a merger.
And the lightening of the sky while keeping the tree dark really makes a difference in my opinion.
One other thing about the repost - the eye moves to places with the most contrast. In the previous posts, the eyes move to the darkest spot in the sky and stay there, avoiding the tree. Now that the sky no longer has the dark places in center, the eyes move over the sky and are then drawn to the place with the most contrast -- the dark tree against the light sky. This is exactly the effect that I would have wanted had it been mine to change -- this is excellent example. Not sure if your class talked about this effect but you've done it well.
Don

[Don Railton]

I would like to thank all of the contributors to this post and especially you Don for your help. This has been a good excersise for me, we have worked the image to its maximum potential I feel and I (and hopefully others...) have learnt lots from it.

Best regards
Don Railton

[Morkel Erasmus]

Woah, I missed a good thread here, sorry Don :Whoa!:
My initial take on the OP was that it was too dark and contrasty.
Then when you made a RP, I felt there was too much foreground.
The last one is best I feel, though I might try to get more contrast in the sky (black sky and white clouds).
:cheers:

[Don Railton]

BPN at its best Morkel....thanks for the comments.!


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