Buffels Bay, Western Cape ZA

[Bill Nuttall]

Sigma DP3M
ISO 100
f5
Western Cape S Africa
very hot and sunny day
Converted to B & W in LR/PS

[Don Railton]

Hi Bill.

This is a beautiful B&W..! I like this very much. My suggestions for improvement are;

1) Clone away the FG grasses just below the two figures on the beach. I think they need to be isolated from the FG.
2) Trim a little off the top, I am talking maybe 1/2" to 1" at the most.
3) I see a hint of posterisation in the sky, maybe this can smoother out a little. (did you process from RAW as a 16 bit image??)
4) check the level on the horizon, might need a fraction CW rotation.

and composition wise i would have liked to see the edge of the FG grasses continue and link up with the distant grasses. This forms a line for the eye to follow around to the houses.. I don't know if you could have taken another image to the left of this that would have allowed this (stitched together..) but I can only ask..

well done anyway, great image

DON

[dankearl]

Nice, I also think some off the top would look good.
Lively looking B & W....

[Don Lacy]

Nice use of tones in the BW conversion I agree with the others about cropping off the top I would probably more aggressive then what they recommend

[Bill Nuttall]

Hi Bill.

This is a beautiful B&W..! I like this very much. My suggestions for improvement are;

1) Clone away the FG grasses just below the two figures on the beach. I think they need to be isolated from the FG.
2) Trim a little off the top, I am talking maybe 1/2" to 1" at the most.
3) I see a hint of posterisation in the sky, maybe this can smoother out a little. (did you process from RAW as a 16 bit image??)
4) check the level on the horizon, might need a fraction CW rotation.

and composition wise i would have liked to see the edge of the FG grasses continue and link up with the distant grasses. This forms a line for the eye to follow around to the houses.. I don't know if you could have taken another image to the left of this that would have allowed this (stitched together..) but I can only ask..

well done anyway, great image

DON

Thanks everyone and Don for your suggestions

1). I'm not that good at detailed pp - I'll spoil it if I try
2). Top trimmed …….. but then I'm into an "unconstrained crop" and away from 16 x 9 - does that matter?
3). Yep - Sigma RAW - then 16 bit Tiff . into LR/PS
4). Done

no more shots to the left or right, just a few more coloured images of the same

here is my re-edit

[Andrew McLachlan]

Hi Bill, nice B&W conversion and the crop from the top is a big improvement. Looking forward to seeing more.