[GetAnafterlife]

I don't usually take pictures in black and white so id like your views on this.

[skipper954]

Hi Afterlife

Did you take the mono in camera or convert post processing? Big difference. I, for one, never let the cam process for me. I am a control freak.

I like the comoposition. The eye is drawn to the end of the river because of the rh hill and the river itself.

However, there are several things that you could improve.

The people on the left bank could be cloned out.

The hill on the right is a bit dark. There is detail in the shadows, I am sure.

The sky is a bit light, and not very interesting. I think there is detail there, too, that can be brought out.

Landscapes in mono are particularly difficult because there is not a great deal of tonal range in the greens. But here, between the river, hill and sky, I think that you could have a winner.

skip

[IanHoughton]

I agree with Skip on this one. I like the way the river leads your eye through the picture but the sky has lost all its detail. If you have the RAW image, perhaps process them twice and combine them.

[Dabhand16]

Nice composition, and I don't find the people a problem. They add a bit of scale to the scene.

I've had a little play, and although the sky has suffered in the compression for posting, it looked better in photoshop. Having said that, I think that maybe it was shot as mono in the camera, as the cloud detail did not enhance well even before the compression blew the sky.

[Rob Barron]

As above mostly though i agree with graham that the people don't bother me too much and they do provide scale.

In terms of the post-processing, if indeed that is what you did, you will find that playing with the channel mixer in photoshop (I am not sure what you are using) you can create a wide variety of monochrome images depending on the balance of the three channels. Experience will teach you which way to go for a given colour picture as you cannot use just one setting for all.

I was thinking of doing a Channel Mixer tutorial to get underneath its skin a little and help show the way to approach it. if you would find this useful, let me know and I'll get onto it.

I like the composition very much, you have the right eye for the picture so well done on that. I absolutely agree with Skip; NEVER use the mono setting on a camera, it's a waste of time and almost never produces the best result. Post-processing is nearly always better.

Cheers,
Rob

[Markulous]

Must admit that it doesn't do much for me as a B/W but then I prefer colour in my landscapes!

Agree with Rob re. the figures. Reckon the sky needs a kick as it is very bland and could be used to balance the shot:


Cropped, burned sky, dodged hill

[GetAnafterlife]

thnaks for the edits, i used the mono setting on the camera. Heres one i took in color the sky is a bit satured i think.



its not as straight as the b&w one.

[Rob Barron]

I did a combo here using the sky from Mark's mono and converted the colour shot to mono using channel mixer. I cloned a few more clouds into the sky using what was there just to mute the bright over-exposed area. The colour version's sky was too over-exposed to do anything with, hence the patch.

I did a little burning in but not much, mainly the path on the left as it was strong white and the lighter bracken in the near FG so that it didn't pull the eye downbwards. See what you think anyway, I was mainly trying to see what difference it would be without using a camera mono. It is certainly possible to get the contrast up a bit further but I didn't want it too strong, tried to keep a balance between detail and not becoming too harsh.

Cheers,
Rob

[GetAnafterlife]

love the edit it looks much better, thanks. I never really edit my pictures but i will try to do it more.

[Rob Barron]

Getan, no need to aim to edit unnecessarily but it's good to know you can do it if you feel you need to The sky truly is the limit with the tools available to us with modern photography but of course we still aim to get as close as possible in camera and then make any tweaks necessary afterwards.

You composed this well and the mono works to give a shot with a bit of character so well done

Cheers,
Rob