eeny, meeny, miney, mo

[mariehass]

Like Chris, I have 2 treatments.

Please tell me if anything works. Normally I don't do landscapes.

1.

_MG_9997mbw by mariehass, on Flickr

2.

_MG_9997m by mariehass, on Flickr

An LOL to Janis. I did not know how to spell my title. ;D I have some other images I have been playing with. When I get the chance, I will post them.

[janis]

Oct 20, 2012 17:48:56 GMT mariehass said:

An LOL to Janis. I did not know how to spell my title. ;D

Please don't blush on my account, Marie. It is precisely because I do not want to inhibit expression that I do not like to see people correcting other people's English, period. It is not non-standard usages I object to, it is presumptive "corrections" that are flat out wrong, for one thing, and do not allow for intentional creative use of language, on the other. I so apologize if I did not make that clear.

I am off for a walk with Stella, so will respond to your picture later.

[janis]

The cranky one is back with a few thoughts.

Partial as I am to fall colour, I think the colour here somewhat distracts from and obscures the strongest compositional elements. When I look at the colour version, I am asking myself what the subject is. When I look at the B&W I am more cognizant of the rays of light descending from the clouds, the curvature of the treeline and how the slope of the ground in the foreground echoes the treeline, all of which are pleasing and make me think that is what compelled you to frame the photo this way. That said, the trees are more clearly differentiated in the colour version, to my eye at least. I don't know enough about B&W processing to know what to suggest. A colour filter? More structure? More tonal contrast?

I personally would prefer both without the line of cloud at the top, which I think closes in the scene. A crop just below the cloud opens it up for me, but the right choice would be the one that conveys the feeling you want to convey.

[mariehass]

Janis,

Rob made a comment in another thread that b&w takes bigger areas of contrast. Sometimes, even with color, I think that is the case.

To me, the color version looked "busy".

'Rie

[janis]

Oct 20, 2012 23:24:28 GMT mariehass said:

Rob made a comment in another thread that b&w takes bigger areas of contrast.

Bingo. Too much in the way of bitty bits.

Sometimes, even with color, I think that is the case.
To me, the color version looked "busy".

For me, it was the distribution of the reds and oranges.

[mariehass]

This was the quote from Rob

I think I know what you mean. I always think that for mono images to work there has to be larger areas of black, white and greys. Colour (especially in a bitty image) gives definition and shape by making the different elements look more distinct just by having a different colour (even though the shape is the same in BW or colour). So with BW images you need to rely more on larger blocks of black, white and grey to help give that same definition and visual impact.


Read more: www.f-stop-cafe.com/index.cgi?board=mono&action=display&thread=3320#ixzz29t4XGI1K

I did not want to misquote him.

'Rie

[janis]

Thanks, Marie. I had read that earlier today, but it takes multiple readings for things to sink in.

[Stevewebb]

Hi Rie
I see much more potential in the color version than the B&W. To me it seems a crime to wipe out all of that beautiful autumn colour.

But the image was lacking a bit of something so.......I had a play with it of course. It might be a bit sketchy in places due to the lack of pixels but I think it demonstrates my point.



I selected the sky first of all and made a levels adjustment to bring out the rays of light a bit more.
Then I inverted the selection and did a separate levels adjustment to set the black and white points for that area.
Then I cloned out the tree that was obscuring the view of the hay bales to make them a much stronger part of the composition.
Finally I cropped the dark band of sky off the top.

[mariehass]

Dear Steve,


I like what you did.

I selected the sky first of all and made a levels adjustment to bring out the rays of light a bit more.
Then I inverted the selection and did a separate levels adjustment to set the black and white points for that area.

I do not know how to do this part.

'Rie

[chrisc]

I think this calls for another one of your great edit tutorials, Steve.

[mariehass]

Chris,

Agreed.

Steve, please feel free to use my image as an example.

'Rie

[Stevewebb]

I am working on a different tute at the minute but maybe the next one

[mariehass]

Thank you. If you want an unaltered RAW saved as jpeg version let me know and I will email it to you?

'Rie