Cypress B&W 3

[Harold Davis]

Revisited my lake this morning and got some clouds. processed it in silver efex pro and this is what i came up with. worked with several crops before coming up with this one.

D300, 18-200 at 18mm, f/22, 1/15s, 0EV, ISO 800, 3-stop GND and polarizer

thanks for looking. comments and critiques are appreciated.

[Colin Knight]

Harold,

This is very well done. I've only seen a handful of B&W landscape shots that I've actually liked. To me, color is the only way to go in this genre. This is one of the few exceptions.

The only negative I see is that such a large part of the upper left of the image is completely black.

Looks like you really know how to handle your D300.

Thanks for posting,
Colin

[Paul Marcellini]

Getting there Harold. I think the processing is very well done. The only nit and it is just a matter of luck and or waiting is the cloud positioning. I wish there was cloud behind the top of the cypress so it stood out more and as Colin said, a touch too much black up there. I'm guessing you are shooting from something steady with that shutter speed. What about early morning on this guy with the faint pastels too? This tree/comp has a lot of potential. Also looks like you got some horizon distortion.

[Harold Davis]

thanks paul. this is truly an education for me. and i am in elementary school right now. really trying to feel my way around this b&w stuff. i have some more i think with clouds totally encasing the tree. will give those a try and see what happens..

as far as something steady. it's a gitzo. it better hold it steady!!:)

[Kaushik Balakumar]

A very beautiful place and an interesting tree to try various compositions out. The sky looks a bit too dark to me (especially the cloudless sections).

[Roman Kurywczak]

Hey Harold,
I don't mind black as I am a fan of IR......but do agree with the others that it is a bit over bearing. You may also want to avoid the lighter areas when doing contrast boost as they are real close to being blown. That being said.....this is much stronger comp wise than the previous post and I look forward to you exploring this one some more!

[Robert Amoruso]

harold,

I don't mind the dark sky (personal preference) as I used to do this with B&W film and a deep red filter. The highlights are too bright and contrasty especially the clouds. Cut back on the contrast gain and tame the highlights for a real winner.