Black and White

[Cheryl Slechta]

I've got to start working on some theme images but I took this image yesterday while out shooting with a friend in Gainesville. The clouds in the sky were beautiful and I love the image in color but I cropped this down to a few lines and converted in Nik Silver Efex and then did some dodging and burning. I'd like to know what you all think - I like the lines and the clouds in the background. Comments and suggestions would be appreciated

[Judy Howle]

Oooh, what a nice composition! I like the simple close crop and the clouds in the background.

[Dennis Bishop]

I definitely like the lines and the black & white. Although I didn't know they were clouds, I also like the background. My guess would've been marble. It looks almost Escher-like, especially when rotated 180 degrees, and that's intriguing. However, I like it better as you have it. With the contrasting textures and tones, and the lines and shapes, I wonder how this might work as a flipped image.

[Kerry Perkins]

That's really cool Cheryl! I love the composition, clean lines, and the contrasting clouds. Looks really nice in monochrome. You could do a lot of things with this base image, such as flipping as Dennis mentioned or ?.

[Michael Gerald-Yamasaki]

Cheryl,

Greetings. It's interesting that Dennis mentions Escher-like as my mind went there as well. I like the strong lines and contrasting texture. I find myself wanting to straighten it somehow, but seeing the little wedge of the vertical part foils a straight perspective. Perhaps a cw rotation would break the relation to a straight geometry. I was thinking or rotating the lower right dark line to near the corner without losing too much of the top clouds. A thought...

Cheers,

-Michael-

[Nancy Bell]

Cheryl, I love the strong dark shape coming down and dividing into the two opposite curves! The softness of the distant clouds in the bkgd contrast very well with the concrete solidness of the structure. This b&w version really emphasizes that dramatic dark shape as the whitish/gray concrete and clouds blend together to provide a subtle varied backdrop.

[Anita Bower]

A strong, graphic image. I love the direction in which you are going with these types of images. You have a great eye. Wonderful curves, lines, shapes textures. The only think I might try is adding just a bit more contrast--I'd line the dark shapes to be just a bit stronger.

[Jackie Schuknecht]

Very different, but full of presence. I like the contrasts between sharp/soft; and geometric and organic. I like the texture in the sculpture, but maybe just a touch too much in the sky. Personal taste I guess.