Black and White Landscape - Case Study
As part of our ‘How I Took it’ Assignment gvarosky submitted this photo and told us how it was taken.
gvarosky also asks for feedback on the shot and suggestions on how you’d improve it. Feel free to leave your constructive advice and ideas in comments below.
Where Was it Taken?
Along the West River in Jamaica State Park, Jamaica, VT, USA
What settings did you use?
Landscape mode, 62mm Focal Length (Auto settings used an exposure of 1/200, aperature of f/10, and an ISO speed of 400)
What gear did you use?
Nikon D50, Tamron 28-80mm Lens
Why did you compose the shot as you did?
I specifically went up to Jamaica State Park that weekend to shoot the park, and surrounding area, as Vermont definitely has an old New England charm about it. This shot was one of several hundred I took of the river, and it was my first stop on my morning hike, the light was perfect to capture the river, and the early morning mist that was still hanging over the river that morning. I set up my tripod, looked through my viewfinder, and saw this scene that I had to capture.
What post production work have you done on the shot (if any)?
I used Picasa by Google to change the photo to black & white, using the Tint effect, as I feel it does a better job than the built-in Black & White effect as far as the sharpness of the effect.
What were you hoping to achieve with the shot?
Amazingly enough, I think I was able to capture what I set out to do, which was to get an early morning photo of the beautiful West River. I ave many fond memories of the river, as I try to go camping here often.
What did you do well?
I think I managed to be in the right place at the right time. I took the shot many times manually bracketing through various settings, until I was able to capture the shot I was looking for.
How could you have improved it?
Offhand, I am not sure how I could improve this photo. I would love some feedback from other group members, one of the great features of the groups here on Flickr, is the constructive criticism to always help me improve my work.
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November 17th, 2006 at 1:30 pm
A great park if you are in the area! I’m super psyched to see Southern Vermont featured here.
November 20th, 2006 at 11:59 am
I like to see shots like this taken at the 28mm wide angle. With the dark boulder in the foreground, the wide angle would have distorted it and accentuated it in the composition. I think this could have been a really great wide angle shot.
Here’s an example, though it’s of a seascape:
http://www.betterphoto.com/gallery/dynoGallDetail.asp?cat=&photoID=228953
Great photo!
November 24th, 2006 at 11:46 am
Great shot - just crop out that small bright sky segment - The eye goes to the brightest spots.
November 24th, 2006 at 12:04 pm
Great Shot, Did you take any on full manual setting?
Would be nice to see one with a a higher f number and slower shutter speed, that mite bring the background into focus and create a flowing water effect (as long as its not too windy or the trees would blur.
When i do my black and white conversions i use photoshop and apply a “gradient map” which is under image-adjust (use black and white) then i fade that effect with a different blending mode (overlay or multiply are good for increasing contrast, but try them all… very quick and easy.)
Then convert from RBG to greyscale and play with the curves.
November 25th, 2006 at 11:05 am
i love the shot congrats
November 27th, 2006 at 8:29 pm
strange picture : you say it’s black and white but i don’t see any black (plenty of grey) and the white seems to me like silver.
it ’s a beautiful picture but feels to me difficult to focus on it (hard to my eyes)- may be the river is too bright ?