Gilpin Falls Frosted Rocks In BW

[AndrewMcD]

The rocks are glazed in ice from a "wintry mix" that fell a few days previous. This was a very unstructured approach to something I've not attempted before. I decided I wanted to try something in BW; my approach was to just use the tools in Lightroom and see how it turns out. Having done this it's now time to go back and read about digital BW photography and what makes for a good image. Any and all criticisms and comments are appreciated as always.

[Shadowman]

Will the end results be viewed online or in print form?

[NorthernFocus]

The image is nicely composed. I have to say that without your description I'd have had no idea that there was ice/frost on the rocks. The vignette is a bit heavy IMO.

[Downrigger]

Andrew - this is an interesting treatment of an intriguing scene. Your placement of the stream provides compositional strength but does so in opposition to brightness of the rocks. For me, those two elements compete, and unhelpfully so. Since you were interested in showing the ice coating of the rocks I can see how this came out this way. I agree with Dan, too, that the ice/frost feature doesn't show well in this treatment.

I found that cropping about a quarter off the right margin brought your subject rocks into more commanding position in the composition, and resulted in a more clearly a supporting (but important) role for the stream. Experimenting with that, and exploring treatments of the ice that more clearly bring it out (maybe brushing with decreased "clarity"?) might be helpful.

If you are planning to explore B&W seriously, I would recommend considering the NIK software plug-in package - it integrates with LR well, and its monochrome module "silver Efex Pro" allows you be be both precise and adventurous in working with your images. The other modules are nice to have too. Check out some of the instructional videos for NIK to get a feel for this nice tool.

[Manfred M]

Andrew - It's an interesting image, but I'm not quite sure that it totally works for me. It would be interesting to see the colour original to see how that looks.

I find the shot much to contrasty and somehow too dark. All that ice should be acting as a reflector and pumping some light into the shot. I'm also not quite sure on the overall balance / composition. I wonder if you need quite as many rocks on the left.

I'm also a bit "confused" as to the subject of the shot; my eyes keep darting between the large, bright rock on the left and the white of the flowing water.

[Geoff F]

Yes, much the same as my initial thoughts.

Crop a little from the bottom and left. Fractionally boost the brightness. Clone out that small branch on the right side.

[AndrewMcD]

The image is nicely composed. I have to say that without your description I'd have had no idea that there was ice/frost on the rocks. The vignette is a bit heavy IMO.

I admit to having fussed with this image excessively. Ultimately I decided that the original was far too busy and that by using the heavy vignette I was reducing some of the distractions.

[AndrewMcD]

Andrew - this is an interesting treatment of an intriguing scene. Your placement of the stream provides compositional strength but does so in opposition to brightness of the rocks. For me, those two elements compete, and unhelpfully so. Since you were interested in showing the ice coating of the rocks I can see how this came out this way. I agree with Dan, too, that the ice/frost feature doesn't show well in this treatment.

I found that cropping about a quarter off the right margin brought your subject rocks into more commanding position in the composition, and resulted in a more clearly a supporting (but important) role for the stream. Experimenting with that, and exploring treatments of the ice that more clearly bring it out (maybe brushing with decreased "clarity"?) might be helpful.

If you are planning to explore B&W seriously, I would recommend considering the NIK software plug-in package - it integrates with LR well, and its monochrome module "silver Efex Pro" allows you be be both precise and adventurous in working with your images. The other modules are nice to have too. Check out some of the instructional videos for NIK to get a feel for this nice tool.

I agree that the stream and the rocks are in competition. It is very useful for me to have folks here at CIC provide clues to improvements. I'll try the crop you suggest. With regard to the ice glaze on the rocks; it was like nothing I've previously seen and couldn't quite decide how to deal with it.

I do hope to explore more BW images and hope to do so in a more structured manner than the way I approached this image. It was distinctly one of "well, lets see what happens" rather than approaching the image with an end in mind. As I become more educated in BW I will seriously consider your software recommendations.

[AndrewMcD]

Andrew - It's an interesting image, but I'm not quite sure that it totally works for me. It would be interesting to see the colour original to see how that looks.

I find the shot much to contrasty and somehow too dark. All that ice should be acting as a reflector and pumping some light into the shot. I'm also not quite sure on the overall balance / composition. I wonder if you need quite as many rocks on the left.

I'm also a bit "confused" as to the subject of the shot; my eyes keep darting between the large, bright rock on the left and the white of the flowing water.

I can't help but agree that the image as presented fails to be decisive as to the subject. I'm going to attempt the crop that Mark has suggested and see if that helps get things a bit more under control.

I'm going to post the original and invite any and all to have their way with it.

[AndrewMcD]

Here is the original SOOC, the only alterations being the Lightroom conversion to .jpg and whatever sharpening they include in that process. Any and all are invited to process the image as they see fit and hopefully provide some BW image production insight.

Thanks to all that have looked and responeded.

Andrew

[Downrigger]

Nice work, Andrew. For me, this is much stronger in composition and the idea that there is something unusual about the ice on the rocks comes through more clearly. The rocks, with their strong shapes, and green/gray/white contrasts are very nice and suggest why it was you wanted to make this image.

[IzzieK]

I totally agree with Mark's assessment here, Andrew. I like this coloured version very much than the B/W one. The bright areas on the B/W is just too much while here in the coloured version, everything is just right. The colour of the tree doesn't interfere much though they are busy. In fact to my eyes, it adds to the vision of the shot.