The Falls in Black & White

[ShaneS]

This was taken this past weekend at one of our local botanical gardens and what caught my eye was how the falls literally were falling into a pool of light.

I tried to enhance this in my processing and would appreciate your thoughts on that as well as anything else that strikes you as you view it...

[Stagecoach]

Hi Shane,

I like the water, its directions and the light for it, but I wonder if the deep shadow areas of the rocks need bringing out slightly more.

But, lets not overlook that I have not got a clue regarding B&W

Grahame

[FootLoose]

Good composition and really good processing, Shane.

I think the shadow areas that Grahame mentioned are ok, because if you look at them closely there is enough detail to satisfy the curious viewer, and they are a good contrast to the brightest part of the image, the water cascading into the pool at the bottom. My concern is the bright background in the upper left corner: I think that is pulling attention out of the frame.

With the different textures in the rock separating the two flows, the water at the bottom and the water in the streams, there is plenty to sustain viewer interest in this capture.

[IzzieK]

The bright background at the top seems OK to me...I like the whole composition and the different kind of textures which includes the water of course sort of caters looks good too. Good shot, Shane...

[Shadowman]

Nicely captured, makes for a more dangerous looking scene.

[Mike Buckley]

I agree with Greg. In summary, the post-processing you asked about complements the scene. My only misgiving is that the water seems a bit cramped; I'd like to see a bit wider view but I also understand that view might not have been as attractive as I imagine it to be.

[bnnrcn]

Hi Shane I hope I will be learning SEP 2 this winter to convert some of my landscape/seascape shots to B&W. Yours is a good learning example for me. Your image seems nice and different to me, but I really don't know very much about B&W conversions to make a proper comment for the time being

[ShaneS]

For learning purposes I will post the color version (only ACR adjustments) with a wider crop in the same aspect ratio along with my thoughts on why I did what I did in PP.



My initial thought when I came upon the scene was that pool of light falling from the left towards the bottom of the falls was lovely and could be really enhanced in B&W. I wanted softer water and didn't have a ND filter so I combined five images using image averaging to get the look that I wanted (Colin Southern suggested this in one of my other posts).

In PP I planned to bring everything surrounding the rocks to almost black for a very stark contrast with the white water. I cropped to remove almost the entire greenery on the top and the plant on the left as I thought that they distracted the viewer. In cropping tighter I lost some of the foreground water...

I did struggle with whether to leave the upper right portion light or darken it down and decided that I liked the look when it remained brighter. Some of the brighter bits in that area were very difficult to darken enough and became more of a distraction.

After converting to B&W in SEP 2 I made some final adjustments via dodging and burning and voila...you have what I have presented here.

Any additional thoughts or suggestions that you have would be of interest to me.

[Rebel]

Really nice shot and good PP, it makes it a much more dramatic scene. I don't mind the highlights at the top I found myself starting there and then following the water down

[IzzieK]

Not knowing much about B/W processing as many of you do around here, I tend to like the colour version. I like how you processed this one and what you want to achieve with it. The treatment of the water is also good...almost natural. +1 to Matt's comment about the highlights...

[Shadowman]

The pool of light is easier to see in the color version, but it's also overshadowed by speckles of light elsewhere in the image. The B & W and cropping does place the emphasis more on the fall of the water and the lower pool.

[bnnrcn]

Hi again Shane I just want to say that the color image is lovely too. After seeing it, I can say that may be a B&W conversion without cropping would look better, because I think more water in the FG suits the image. And may be there is a way in PP to show the greenery less distracting in B&W. As I said before, I don't have SEP2 and I'm not experienced in B&W images. So these are just my poor thoughts

[Mike Buckley]

For me, the color version is ordinary and the monochrome version is almost mysterious and rich. Well done!

[AndrewMcD]

I feel that you have taken a nice fairly ordinary image and made it into something special. The falls dropping into a pool of light are what caught your eye and I thing your processing has been true to that vision. This isn't the sort of image that I initially look at and go "WOW" but the longer I look at it the more satisfying I find it. You've transcended just some nice waterfalls and produced a fascinating study in black and white.
I wish I could point out some way of improving the image or provide a constructive critique of some sort as you requested but my B&W conversion experience is rather limited. Thank you for posting the color image and explaining your thought process and techniques in the processing.

[AlwaysOnAuto]

First off, thanks for posting the color version of your B&W image. I find it very helpful to see the starting point.
Comments after looking at both images for a while this morning.
I find the speckles in/on the rock of the B&W image very distracting.
Are they water 'droplets' or lichen?
I would have opted for a harsher, ie slower look, to the water to contrast with the smoothness of the rocks. To me it looks like there's too much rushing volume of water to produce the effect in the pool below. I also think the cropping took too much of the sunlight showing on the surface of the pool such that you lost the effect of the pool of light in the B&W version. There isn't enough contrasting light to make the 'pool of light' look like a pool. Do you see what I mean? I guess what I'm trying to say is the pool of light is lost in the white frothing of the water. It's hard to discern that there's light falling on it since the rest of the pool is all black.
I usually don't do PP to my photos so I applaud your efforts here. Thanks for posting.

[ShaneS]

Thank you all for your additional comments! I had an even more stark version in my mind but was challenged to get there in PP so your thoughts are very intriguing especially about the prominence on the 'pool of light', the speed of the water and the crop. The challenge with a starker presentation was keeping the black from going completely black with no detail at all which didn't look right.

I might have to play a bit more with it in different variations. Funny how an image that gets under your skin can make PP such fun

[mugge]

Love the black and white version. The colour one is just 'nice' maybe a touch more detail in the lower part, but that is just my thought.
Ole