Stairway to Heaven

[Sam W]

I was trying to create an interesting monochrome combination of shapes shadows tone and textures. I would appreciate C&C toward that goal. Thanks for viewing.

[just me]

I truly like this image !

Griddi......

[Shadowman]

Nicely captured.

[FootLoose]

I think you have succeed with the shapes and textures, Sam, but the shadows might have more impact if they were a bit darker. I think the sky could alos be toned down a little to give the rock formation more prominence.

[Wavelength]

Gorgeous!!!

[Dave Humphries]

I was trying to create an interesting monochrome combination of shapes shadows tone and textures. I would appreciate C&C toward that goal.

I think you succeeded Sam,

I did toy (in LyteBox) with cropping a little off the right hand side to reduce the dominance of the rocks there - I'm undecided.

[Sam W]

I truly like this image !

Griddi......

Thank you so much. - Sam

[Sam W]

I think you have succeed with the shapes and textures, Sam, but the shadows might have more impact if they were a bit darker. I think the sky could alos be toned down a little to give the rock formation more prominence.

Thanks Greg - I saw that tried to make those edits but I could not keep the image from looking to dark. I may try it again. I appreciate your comments and critique.

[Sam W]

I think you succeeded Sam,

I did toy (in LyteBox) with cropping a little off the right hand side to reduce the dominance of the rocks there - I'm undecided.

Thanks Dave - I could not tell you what the subject is on this either. :-) On the cropping I think that there is an initial desire to place the stairs in the center but leaving them offset to the left places interest as to where they might lead. I appreciate your comments and critique. Best regards - Sam

[Sam W]

I think you have succeed with the shapes and textures, Sam, but the shadows might have more impact if they were a bit darker. I think the sky could alos be toned down a little to give the rock formation more prominence.

Is this close to what you were thinking?

[DEAN01]

Very well done.

[Mike Buckley]

It might help you to know that when I saw the first version, I immediately wished that it had been very much like what the second version turned out to be.

[FootLoose]

That looks better to me, Sam.

[Sam W]

It might help you to know that when I saw the first version, I immediately wished that it had been very much like what the second version turned out to be.

Hi Mike,

Starting B&W photography just recently I have no preconceived notion of what a good B&W should provide. Therefore, I'm going mostly with what appeals to me. Usually near the end of PP I check for 0s and 255s to make sure the photo has the full range of light. I do this mostly because someone here said in essence that a good B&W should contain that characteristic. Sometimes it helps make the photo more appealing to me. About 50% of the time it does not.

With the first version of this photo I was trying to stay somewhat close to how the scene actually looked from a contrast perspective. What I am learning with all the valuable feedback is that it is fine (perhaps preferred) take some artistic license. I guess that should have been obvious. Greg's (Footloose) and your comments were helpful driving this point home. So thanks very much. Best regards - Sam

[Sam W]

That looks better to me, Sam.

Thanks Greg, your small comment will help me a lot going forward. Please see reply to Mike Buckley. Best regards - Sam

[Mike Buckley]

Sam,

There are certain kinds of scenes that naturally seem to call for use of the entire dynamic range and a good bit of mid-tone contrast. Then there are other kinds of scenes that seem to work better with less of both characteristics. It's probably overly simplistic to say that dramatic scenes call for more overall contrast and that scenes lacking drama call for less overall contrast. Even so, that might be a good place to start when thinking about these things.

If you haven't reviewed Donald's website, doing so might help you come to your own conclusions about that. Though perhaps most of his photos display relatively little contrast, some of them certainly display quite a lot.

For me, the primary reason the greater amount of contrast works in your image has to do with texture. There is a lot of texture in your image and my experience is that texture tends to be displayed better with more contrast rather than less. As an example, it seems as if I can feel the texture of the rock surfaces in your second image but not your first image.

The secondary reason is that the puffy clouds in the sky make it more dramatic rather than less. So, a greater difference between the tonality of the clouds and the plain part of the sky (a greater amount of contrast) makes the entire sky more appealing to me because it makes it more dramatic. If the sky had been without any clouds, the treatment of the sky in your first version might have worked fine for me.

[mknittle]

Second version looks great Sam.

[Wavelength]

Yes, Second image is exceedingly beautiful

[rawill]

Very interesting, I am not a monochrome fan, yet!

However, I will comment.
I was really interested to read Dave's comment.
Because, my initial thought was the rocks are too big and in your face, and to me the 'stairway' almost gets lost.
I guess I want the 'stairway' to be more dominant.

So that is my very novice subjective opinion.
Having said all that I do like the image.

And on monochrome, I do have a framed monochrome ink drawing that I bought on my wall.
So maybe my views are changing.

Let me say as I have said before.
I think this site is great.

Rbn

[Sam W]

Very interesting, I am not a monochrome fan, yet!

However, I will comment.
I was really interested to read Dave's comment.
Because, my initial thought was the rocks are too big and in your face, and to me the 'stairway' almost gets lost.
I guess I want the 'stairway' to be more dominant.

So that is my very novice subjective opinion.
Having said all that I do like the image.

And on monochrome, I do have a framed monochrome ink drawing that I bought on my wall.
So maybe my views are changing.

Let me say as I have said before.
I think this site is great.

Rbn

Hi Robin,

In an attempt to win you over to being a monochrome fan I tried to recrop to place more emphasis on the stairs. In doing this it highlights too much noise in the clouds lower in the horizon. Therefore I made the update a lot smaller. I think there are many good cropping in the shot. I hope you like this one.

Just remember, becoming a monochrome fan does not mean you have to give up anything you like...you'll just have more to enjoy. Best regards - Sam