[simpbow]

A place in the site i have never visited until yesterday & seen the comments for Steve400, i me-self love mono shots & know i have got alot to learn but hay theres no better place than here, i like this image here & i think it looks fine done with the channel mixer & a blue tint added to it but is there anything i should or could do to make the image better?

[morlandroger]

I have only tried a few mono. To me the building looks good. but the white sky detracts from it.
Roger

[simpbow]

Cheers Rodger thanks for the comment.

[Rob Barron]

Yes, it's one of those problems that follow Murphy's Law I'm afraid Simpbow, the best buildings to take photos of are always discovered on days when the sky is bleach white!

Notmuch you could have done other than bring in a sky from another picture (perfectly acceptable and has been part of photography since the days of Ansel Adams and other such greats!) but if you live close by then of course there's always another day.

The blue monochrome tone you have used gives it a cold dark feel, a little too dark IMHO as it is detracting from the detail available in the stonework. Also, by making the building seem darker, it accentuates the brightness of the sky in contrast.

I think you could crop a fair amount of the sky at the top as it doesn't contain anything of interest, just more of the branches. You could give this a letterbox dimension but I would also lighten the building to avoid the resulting image being too dark.

I applaud the fact you ignored the rule of thirds and went for a centralised mirror type image here as it works fine with the walls' curves leading the eye in. If possible, could you take the picture from a slightly higher viewpoint? This would strengthen the curves and make them into stronger lead-in lines through to the entrance, taking the viewer's eye through the picture.

Just a couple of thoughts, I hope they are of some help to you

Cheers,
Rob

[_MB_]

Had there been a tree or two more on the left, I don't think you'd get complaints about the white sky. I commented on this before - I think black skies that appear to be in fashion at the moment look very odd in most cases. They look good sometimes of course but often look artificially dramatic to my eye. I prefer starker B&W like this.

[Rob Barron]

I agree with MB that these dark graduated faux skies don't look natural at all. I wasn't thinking of those sorts when I said about bringing in another sky. I meant bringing in a real sky from another photo, one that has a bit of cloud detail to break up the white expanse. I am entirely with you on not liking those graduated efforts, they rarely look right to my eye.

Cheers,
Rob

[fionaB]

i agree with whats been said about needing some detail int he sky, i dont think you need to put a heavily dramatised sky in as there is more than enough atmosphere in the rest of the image... did you shoot this in raw? if so go back to the raw file and bring the exposure way down until there is some little details in the sky then merge it with this one.. This is one of those images that i immeditaly would be tempted to run thru lucis art to bring the details out in the stone work.

nice one tho and lots of potential

Fi

[simpbow]

Sorry guys for only getting back now the young fellow got his new computer so stuff had to be transferred over,thanks for your comments & help,the blue tone is what iam going for,for that cold look [lighter needed], the sky the arch is right & near to me so i could go back anytime, as for replacing the skyiam not confident in doing it so some help would be great,& use some lucias art in the stone work,the blue being used do yous think it is ok because i have a few ideas in mind that i want to use it on?

[fionaB]

i dont think the blue is a problem..... if its not a prob, go back and reshoot either in raw or if not in raw then bracket some shots and then u can use the sky from the underexposed one would be easier than putting a new sky from something else on.... IMHO anyway

Fi

[simpbow]

Cheers Fiona, ive got a few shots of it lighter-darker so i,ll give it a go, if i go to lucias art the arch & feather it from the rest of the image it still does the whole image, is there another way of doing it?

[Rob Barron]

Simpbow, just select the part you want to apply the filter to, then copy it onto a new layer (Ctrl+J in PS) and now apply the filter to that layer. This will apply it to wherever you have selected and nothing else

Cheers,
Rob

[simpbow]

Cheers Rob.