Sunset Drama

[Adhika Lie]

I went through my archive and reworked this shot from Christmas Eve 2014. It seems the sky is always nice on 12/24 (like this one in 2015). I need to put it on my calendar this year. The sunset was actually very colorful but for some reason the B&W appealed to me more. The image is slightly cropped for composition.

Nikon D90, Tokina 12-24mm@12mm, f/16, 5 sec, ISO 200

[Diane Miller]

Competition for Don Lacy! Love it! And marking that date on my calendar...

Perfect alignment of the cloud "bank" (or whatever it should be called) looming over the landforms! Beautiful tonalities and SS!

[Don Railton]

Hi Adhika

I do like your composition here.. the angled cloud, the brightness on the water and the land all form nice subtle leads into the image for the eye.. While the B&W conversion looks good to me, I do wonder what the colour version looks like and if I would prefer it..

DON

[Glennie Passier]

Wow Adhika. Competition indeed! Looks brooding. Super nice seaweed on the rock and the waves just caressing the sand in the FG is beautiful. My only extremely minor nit is the small narrow landforms in the distance. I would be wishing for a separation between them and the sky.

Well done!

[Adhika Lie]

Diane, Don, & Glennie: Thanks so much for the feedbacks. When I first processed this image, I naturally inclined to the color version of this shot but maybe I have mellowed out a little bit, the B&W seems to be just as, if not more, pleasing. Let's just say, I tried not to get another "colorful sunset picture". If you see tonality discrepancy, that was because the B&W has more processing done to it namely an extra 50% opacity SEP layer to get a little bit more "texture" on the water.

[Andrew McLachlan]

Hi Adhika, a very nice scene. I am thinking the foreground rock and weeds could use a touch more sharpening. I like both versions, but do lean a little more toward preferring the color version (the orange hue on the horizon is great). In the B&W conversion I would like to see a little more contrast and a tad darker for a more moody feel.

[Don Railton]

Hi Adhika

Thanks for putting up the colour version. I too have a slight preference for the colour, not sure why, it just seems to resonate with me more. I do think we all should step away from the normal train of though, so well done..

DON

[Adhika Lie]

Andrew & Don - thanks!

Re: darker B&W. I am a little bit cautious about this one because I keep going back and forth between a darker overall tone (simple curve adjustment) and the one as presented in Pane #1. I let the image sit for two days and each time I looked at them I ended with a different decision. I guess it has something to do the temperature of my coffee that day and how hungry I am at that time.

[Glennie Passier]

Holy moly Adhika! The B&W is gorgeous, but I am swaying toward the colour. You better eat more and drink more coffee if this is the result. I'm going to give that a whirl.

I agree with Andrew about sharpening the seaweed a tad..would you think about a little more light on that rock?

Well done!

[Adhika Lie]

LOL, Glennie. For two years, I liked the color, too. Okay, I still like the color version but I think B&W is rather out of the box. In any case, I am glad both version works for everybody despite the slight preference on the color!

Re: sharpening: I was a little cautious about sharpening my landscape photos but you are right, I could apply a tad more sharpening on the foreground.

More light would make it a little too flat at least for my taste, Glennie. I try not to overly distupt the relative tonal relationship between the bright backlit sky and the foreground.

[Don Lacy]

Very nicely done Adhika, I can see why you like the BW version and I would prefer it to if had a tad more contrast and darker blacks but out of the two you presented I think the color version it stronger as processed and I agree with Andrew with sharpening the foreground rock.

[Morkel Erasmus]

I actually prefer the colour version.
The foreground can use some more sharpening?