rock at the beach

[einazani]

i cropped the picture at the top taken out the sky and some part of land as i found it distracting.
my question is, does anyone can give opinion if the b&w is ok. i can't seem to find perfect b&w. either high contrast, the picture look dark but low contrast the picture look dull.
composition wise, i read the landscape at least need foreground, middle ground and background for better composition. does leaving out the sky make this picture kind of look hanging?
overall, what else can be improved on this picture?
thanks

Taken from nikon d90, lens 18-105mm f3/5-5.3
ISO 200 f/22 at 18mm

From May 5, 2011

[Krusty79]

That's a nice shot of the rocks, but it looks like you have dynamic range issue. I looked at a histogram of your image and you have clipping at both ends. You have blown out white areas and black areas with no detail. Your camera sensor cannot handle that wide of a range. It is a constant battle for landscape photographers. What time of day did you take this shot? If you took it in the afternoon, I would go back closer to sunset when you won't have to deal with such a large dynamic range. If you took this in the golden hours, then you could try HDR to try to get a more even exposure, as this looks like a difficult image to do exposure blending.

I would recommend using these rocks as foreground interest for a sunrise or sunset shot. I have no idea which direction this beach faces, so I can't be more specific. I think you could get a great shot out of that. If you want to keep the focus on the rocks and eliminate the sky, then I would try to find some distinctive feature in the rocks to use as a focal point. Right now, my eye wanders over the image and doesn't really know where to settle. Another option would be to point your camera parallel to the shoreline and take shots that way. You might have to dodge some waves to do that, though! This looks like a spot with great potential and I would encourage you to experiment with different compositions.

[SwissJon]

I like this, but I wonder what it would be like in colour?

I think you may have cropped either too low, or too high, the water section looks wrong, I think I'd have cropped closer so you just have rocks in the photo, it would be a lot more abstract, I think the sea in the background is a little distracting. However looking at the rocks at the waters edge, I think they'd make good ubjects in themselves for a long exposure.

[Englishteacher]

I like it. I like the contrast (blown out, under exposed?) I suspect it was intentional. I also like the BW version. Color would be distracting. I can see this hanging on a wall, perhaps in an office or study. Keep up the good work.

[kenichiukiya]

I agree with everything Krusty said. Also technically, what's the reason for ISO200 and f/22, and what time during the day did you take this shot? I'm no expert, but from what I read for landscape, somewhere around f/16 is usually enough if you focus 1/3 of the way into the frame, you'll get sharp image across. and also if you take it during bright daylight then may be you could push ISO down to 100 to try minimise overexposure.

From what I can see in the image, the exposure time is a bit long-ish? good job nonetheless, and I can see some good images coming if you keep going back there! (Try HDR/DRI, it'll surprise you! LoL)

Keep it up!

[einazani]

actually, i put at f/22 thinking i want to capture d smooth water.. that's why for the low exposure.
at first i was thinking of using hdr but the colour come out not too pleasing so i change to b&w. this picture was taken during sunset but with all the editing here and there it kinda look like during bright light.
anyway, thanks for the critique. really appreciate it.