Seagull perch..

[Don Railton]

Hi guys.

I mentioned I visited NZ with my grandson in my previous post. I found this bit of driftwood on a beach on the west coast Of the North Island close to New Plymouth. It appealed to me, I wonder what you think? I had to remove a little seagull overflow and its cropped to approx 80 % of the original. It has been processed & converted to B&W in ACR, exported to CS6 where the overflow was removed, the image cropped, and a vignette (using levels) and exposure layer added.

Equipment:
50D (1D4 was being serviced)
70 to 200 F2.8 series 1 @ 75mm handheld.
1/1250 at F10 and ISO 1000

DON

[Don Lacy]

Hi Don, Some nice textures and patterns here, maybe a tad more contrast ofn the processing.

[Don Railton]

Thanks for commenting Don..and happy new year...!

[Morkel Erasmus]

An interesting one Don.
I like the added contrast but would try doing it without inducing such a heavy vignette?
I think the long log behind detracts from the focus on the textures of the main subject - you could have removed it manually given the shooting situation :t3

[Don Railton]

Thanks Morkel for you comments. I almost didn't post the repost because of the vignette... I like the effect they have of focusing the eye on the subject, but they need to be not apparent to work best. I agree whole heartily that this one is coarse in ever sense of the word, but I chose to let fly anyway:e3. Regarding the log behind, I intentionally did not disturbed the scene because getting realistic tonal gradients back into the sand can be a challenge, for me anyway... thanks for the valuable feedback, have a great new year.

Don

[Adhika Lie]

Hi Don, Happy new year! I like what you captured here very much. I don't mind the contrast in the OP, reminds me of the days of film. I do wish you have more on the left, though. Morkel makes a good comment about the log behind, but looks like it also means removing the entire log in the BG, not just the bright part... and that would be a loss to me. Maybe burning the brighter part of the log would help a little bit.

[Don Railton]

Thanks Adhika, happy new years to you too..! I did crop from the left, so when i get a chance I might redo one more time and try to incorporate everyone's input...just to see how it looks..

DON

[Andrew McLachlan]

Hi Don, an interesting chunk of wood for sure...I like the added contrast in the repost but do feel the vignette is a little too heavy as well.