Beach conversion bw

[Bill Randall]

I'm considering moving up to this forum from ETL. Reading some of the comments leads me to believe that some people are upset because they feel the entries are too accomplished and ETL should be for beginners only. I am not a beginner, but I don't feel ready for prime time either. To satisfy the folks who feel as I stated I will try this, but I am a bit uncomfortable. Nothing has been removed or added to this image. Converted, sized and sharpened.

[Rene Quenneville]

Bill, don't worry, we all feel the same; wondering if our stuff is good enough to show here. You have your place here. We all need to learn and your feedback will also be really appreciated.
The picture seems to be a little over exposed in the upper right corner. Maybe using a neutral grad filter at an angle ould have reduced the exposure. I like the sharpness and the angle of view. Well done.

[Bill Randall]

Thank you for the encouragement Rene and the the critique. Every little bit helps.

[Roman Kurywczak]

Hey Bill,
Welcome to the forum! It is a bit daunting at first but you will soon see that Robert and Dave don't bite and Rene is correct.....it is the quickest way to learn and improve! Just keep in mind that what we offer are suggestions and you don't have to agree with them. Commenting on others work even if you don't feel qualified also helps the process because it forces you to look at elements like comp/exposure and such.....that help make an image either bad......great.....or in between. That will only help you when you are out composing images yourself!

OK.....first.....not really a critique but more of a suggesion.....when you have and image with a lot of white or grey around the area.....put a thin black border around it because the BPN BG has a way of bleeding into the image.....gives a difined edge and just helps visually. OK comp......I like the way you have the elements seperated with the stack placed in an excellent location. Ditto for the FG rock and the other elements work nicely with both of them. I'm a bit picky on edges......so I would crop (notice I didn't say clone/patch) off the bit on the right where the rock sticks out...almost on the horizon.....because I would then proportionally take off some on the top. As I studied it further....I think you could go with 1/2 of the sky off the top. For me this helps keep the mood and feel yet puts the focus more on the main subjects.....the stack and rock without taking away the mood and feel. Latly the PP'ing.....this has a softer look and feel to it....which works for me in this image. I do think you need to bring out the LH side of the stack.....just to get a bit more seperation from the land mass......and that will be the final touch. A lot of writing for very minor tweaks that will take the image up a few notches IMO......so overall with the comp and mood......you did an excellent job!

[Bill Randall]

Thank you Roman. One of the best set of suggestions I have received. I will have to print it out to work the changes and I will give it a go and see how the final result plays for me. I love the detail in your advice.

[Bill Randall]

Tried the suggestions you made. Good improvement overall. The one thing that troubles me is the horizen line is quite centered after the crop. Maybe because of our training I find it a bit distracting. I can change this by cropping less than half but still cropping some off the sky. What do you think?

[Robert Amoruso]

Bill,

Welcome to the forum and we promise only to torture you moderately. ;)

I purposely did not read any of the other comments. I am guessing though that Roman suggested the border. Good idea but I feel this is too big and too black. I would go thinner and more of a mid-tone. You can use the color picker and set the border color to one of the mid-tones in the image. Many times with borders, I will try to chose a complimentary color in the image to act as the border.

Now for the composition. You are on the right track here. You have a strong FG element (the rock), strong middle ground element (tall rock) and strong BG element (cliff). The fog obscures the elements more as they recede into the BG - which is good as that imparts depth in an image.
Your next important step is arranging them. Try to make a geometrically pleasing arrangement to lead the eye in the frame. Diagonals and triangles are strong geometric shapes. If you have moved right, the FG rock would have moved right and created more of a triangle with the middle ground rock and BG cliff. You post's composition have a strong leading line from FG to Middle Ground diagonally and then jogs right to the cliff - but my feeling is moving that FG rock more right in the frame would have balanced the image better.

Look for edge distractions - small stuff clipped off. You have them on both left and right edges (the right edge one disappeared in the frame repost). Either clone them out, crop them out - but always try to compose in camera to eliminate them.

B&W treatment is a good idea here and the toning gives the image a cool 1920's look to it. Please don't let this dissuade you, but personally I am not generally keen on toning but I like it here.

Well I am hoping that we see you back here again. I feel you posted an excellent image for critique and one that belongs in this forum. Looking forward to seeing more work soon. Again, welcome.

[Bill Randall]

Thank you Robert. I agree about the foreground rock, it bothered me somewhat because of the straight line. I'll try to figure out how to move it. The edge rock on the right I cropped out in the repost, but the one on the left I thought might be ok. It is too far into the image to crop out so I guess I will try to clone it out. I feel the same way about the frame too dark and too wide. Will fix.
Bill