On the point...

[spellbound]

Took this the other day and after some PP, and removal of unwanted objects, I opted to go black and white. I havn't done much black and white before, so any c&c would be great.

Cheers

[morfasie]

Looks stunning to me, like they gradient black at the bottom!

[spellbound]

Originally Posted by morfasie

Looks stunning to me, like they gradient black at the bottom!

Thanks. It's growing on me.

[aakash_vakil]

Looks great ! I am a big fan of B&W images, but never seem to be satisfied with what I create. This one is great :-)

Maybe the framing can be with tower to extreme left instead of off center or right? Not seen many tower images with tower to left so should give that different feeling.

Regards,
Aakash

[spellbound]

Originally Posted by aakash_vakil

Looks great ! I am a big fan of B&W images, but never seem to be satisfied with what I create. This one is great :-)

Maybe the framing can be with tower to extreme left instead of off center or right? Not seen many tower images with tower to left so should give that different feeling.

Regards,
Aakash

The original is not a great pic. It was taken handheld and wasn't the most well composed shot. The more I look at it, the better I feel about it.

[wulf]

What do I like? I like the lighting and overall tones of the picture and I am particularly struck by the cloud that floats above the tower. The picture would be very different without that or with it in a different position and I think you chose a good moment to take the picture.

Areas that might bear some consideration:

1. The dark patch in the bottom centre of the tower. Even viewing the largest size on Flickr I can't see exactly what it is. Unless you want a faithful picture of that lighthouse on that precise date, it may be worth cloning it out. The other dark patch partway up isn't so obtrusive because it doesn't leave you trying to guess if it is a person or a doorway or a treestump, etc.

2. Some of the lines aren't straight. Partly this is a side effect of using a wide angle lens, which makes the right hand side of the tower lean in much more than the left. You may want to correct this or rotate to find a good compromise. Also, what I presume is the sea is higher on the right than the left. After any rotations, you may be able to paint in a correction which I think would make things look more stable.

3. To my eye, there seems a bit too much space to the right of the tower. Try its centre line a third of the way in from the right rather than almost halfway across the frame. Also, I think it might benefit from a bit more space at the bottom of the image to root the tower against the large expanse of sky above.

Wulf

[coolname]

I like how the tower stands out against the sky.

That being said, I believe a closer crop would add more drama to the shot.

[WooD]

Originally Posted by wulf

1. The dark patch in the bottom centre of the tower. Even viewing the largest size on Flickr I can't see exactly what it is. Unless you want a faithful picture of that lighthouse on that precise date, it may be worth cloning it out. The other dark patch partway up isn't so obtrusive because it doesn't leave you trying to guess if it is a person or a doorway or a treestump, etc.

Wulf

I appears to be chipped paint. The door is on the left side of the tower.

That is one short lighthouse.

[spellbound]

It is indeed chipped paint.

The challenge here is that the lighthouse is not straight...it does lean to one side. Given that the area it is situated slopes left to right, the effect this has on the water line in the background is something I did not consider. Im not sure what others think, but to me the water line is straight and the slope of the land deceives the eye into believing that it is not. I had rotated the image slightly when I cropped as the lean on the tower was bugging me and became more noticeable with the tighter crop.

Here is the original image...maybe it will make more sense.