Donald inspired me

[gregj1763]

( I think this title has been used before), I saw Donald's entry in monthly comp and thought of Huntsman's Lake where this shot was taken and have a before and after for your opinions
I'm thinking more B&W of late and therefore tone and texture, hopefully I have captured that in this image.
It was run through CC then Silver Efex for the conversion.
C&C welcome,
PS I like the frame, each to their own
PPS that branch in the foreground was bloody heavy and I had to drag it there to create a leading line

Sony A65 0.5 sec, f/16, iso 100 Grad ND filter

[Donald]

Ha ha. I couldn't have moved the log in my picture even if I wanted to do.

Thank you for the honour of even thinking that I had inspired you.

I think it a good composition is exactly the sort of composition that I'd go after. The B & W shows us that the left hand edge around that tree trunk and the hill are much better when lightened up, they are a bit lost in each other in the colour version. The processing of the B & W has a more tone mapping feel than I would do. It's like one of those an HDR-style that has gone too far with the sliders. I'd take it back to a more realistic setting. I'm not sure if that is heavy use of the Advance Blacks and Advance Whites in Silver Efex Pro.

[gregj1763]

Thanks for the feedback Donald,I will have another go at the image tomorrow.

[Shadowman]

A couple of modifications (less clouds, protrusion in water) to the mono version, I think the conversion tends to de-emphasize the lake and concentrate solely on the land mass; was this your intention?

[Geoff F]

This may work OK for the foreground but the edited version now has rather unnatural looking clouds.

[gregj1763]

A couple of modifications (less clouds, protrusion in water) to the mono version, I think the conversion tends to de-emphasize the lake and concentrate solely on the land mass; was this your intention?

Thanks for the feedback John, my intention with the conversion was to emphasise the foreshore leading from bottom right and curving up through the image. I wanted to highlight texture and thats why I included the branch to add some interest as I felt the image was dull without it.
Greg

[gregj1763]

This may work OK for the foreground but the edited version now has rather unnatural looking clouds.

Thanks for the feedback Geoff.
Point taken with the clouds, my intention was more artistic than realistic and I may have been a bit heavy handed with the post processing. Another edit tonight with all suggestion taken on board may Improve the image.
Greg

[gregj1763]

A less heavy handed version of last nights image, backed the sliders off and I think a more realistic image this time.
Thanks for the help Donald, John and Geoff

[Donald]

That's it. Much better.

The one thing left, for me, is to separate that tree trunk from the hill and the rocks behind it to make it stand out more.

Colour filters can be one way of doing this, but not if the trunk and the foliage behind it are the same colour. You could certainly use that for the trunk/rock separation.

If colour filters don't seem a good option, then you could place a control point on the trunk and lighten it up/put in more contrast/put in structure .. or a combination'd need to reduce the all three. You would need to reduce the radius of the control point so that you were hitting the trunk only.

[Geoff F]

Yes I was also thinking about adding just a fraction more contrast. Maybe try simply adding a little bit of highlight brightness, but watch those clouds in the top right corner. I would mask them out before adding any more brightness.

[gregj1763]

Thanks Donald & Geoff, will work on it again tonight.
Greg

[gregj1763]

Trunk lightened and a few other tweak's as suggested.
Thanks for the help.
Greg

[Donald]

Well done, Greg.

I hope this has been a good exchange not just for you, but for anyone else who reads it. Conversion to B & W is so much more than just de-saturating an image and can be quite a complex, but highly satisfying exercise.

[JBW]

Trunk lightened and a few other tweak's as suggested.
Thanks for the help.
Greg

I doubt that I'm the only appreciating this discussion. Marked improvement from first to last.

[Geoff F]

Yes, looks good now.

[gregj1763]

Even though I didn't capture the image I had in my minds eye on the day, this has been a valuable lesson in B&W conversions for me.
Thanks all for your input.
Regards, Greg

[joebranko]

Well done, Greg.

I hope this has been a good exchange not just for you, but for anyone else who reads it. Conversion to B & W is so much more than just de-saturating an image and can be quite a complex, but highly satisfying exercise.

I am one of those who just selects Mono, and hopes for the best. When I select Silver Effects I have no idea what to try, what to do. Thanks for sharing this Greg, and thanks Donald for the lessons herein.