Black and White waves

[Craig E]

I recently read the Freebie download on black and white images and thought I’d revisit this pic I took last year. It was early morning and the light was beautiful. I thought the contrast between the deep blue of the sea, creamy waves and the course sand on the beach would work well in mono. I went reasonably heavy on the vignette. Has this panned out okay? Thanks!

[beth]

great contrast.  i don’t think this needs a vignette.  at least not on the sides.  it’s an abstract of stripes, a vignette that darkens the sides will interrupt the horizontal stripes pattern and stand out.  you can get away with darkening just the top and bottom with the graduated filter instead of a traditional round or square vignette.

a few nitpicks – some of the whites look blown or posterized when viewed large.  also, the left side, where the waves are crashing, is a little higher than the right.  could be a natural curve or that the wave crashed sooner than the ones front and center.  but i think bringing it down on the left would be an improvement.

 

[Craig E]

Hi Beth,

Many thanks for your comments, much appreciated. Good advice there on the vignette, thank you. Your right, when you consider the horizontal nature of the subject, it makes a lot more sense to compliment this with a vignette that doesn’t affect the sides of the image (if indeed a vignette is wise at all in this instance). I’ll also look at whether it needs straightening, though I did do this I think (perhaps not carefully enough! Cheers!

[Dahlia Ambrose]

Hi Craig, this is a beautiful shot. I agree with Beth’s comment about the vignette. Hoping that lightening the vignette will show a bot more details on the top that looks a bit darker 🙂

[Craig E]

Hi Beth

Thanks for your comment. The vignette was a mistake in this image, I think. It is a common theme in the other comments too. All very useful feedback. Many thanks.

[Tobie]

Craig I can see what you’ve tried but from an ST point of view I’m afraid the image lacks anything of interest. A color image would probably have done a little better in that regard but even then a lack of anything of interest is shooting you in the foot.

[Craig E]

Hi Tobie

Thank you for your comments. I certainly take your point about the foreground interest, although in this case I intentionally kept the composition minimal, intending to feature the horizontal character of the sea, waves and sand, as the only three elements of the image. You may well be right about the colour, as they were strong in this image before conversion, and it may suit the minimal composition better that way. I did it in mono as it was a high contrast shot and I was keen to try b&w having read the article. I appreciate the cc Tobie, thanks.

[JasenkaG]

I would perhaps remove the vignette and try to remove the noise, if possible.

[Craig E]

Hi Jasenka,

Thanks for this comment. The vignette certainly hasn’t been popular with this shot, and on reflection, I completely agree! Cheers!

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