Abandoned House b/w

[EOBeav]

I'm looking for your general thoughts about the b/w conversion. If you have some street cred around here, I'd also like some feedback on composition, editing, and cropping. Thanks in advance for your helpful comments and suggestions.


Fairfield by Rick.Scheibner, on Flickr

EXIF:

Camera Canon EOS Digital Rebel XSi
Lens: Canon EF 17-40mm f/4 L
Exposure 0.04 sec (1/25)
Aperture f/16.0
Focal Length 17 mm
ISO Speed 100
Exposure Bias 0 EV

[navcom]

Nice well-thought-out composition Rick. I like the layout...especially the lines. Nice position and great perspective. The subjects are very supportive of each other and there isn't clutter. As for the B&W...works well and has great contrast. Gives it a "Wizard of Oz" - Kansas sort of feel.

[Bruce A]

I have to agree with navcom - your image is beautifully composed and shows great depth. If I was to try anything (it may or may not be beneficial) it would be to use the dodge tool to lighten a couple of those foreground branches but only just a little. But it's magazine material to me. Great work!

[Jim Fox]

I did stay in a Holiday Inn Express last night so I don't know how that works into my street cred around here.

I like where you are going here, but the dead tree in the foreground is bothering me. I looked at it last night and thought the same thing. I keep getting drawn to the cluttered mess of branches and not the house. Got any other shots from this place? What's running thru my head that I would like to try if I had this place to shoot......is just the house (and maybe the old windmill) and the openness of the rolling hills.

My 2 cents

TFS

[theeventof]

I can't say that I have a lot of street cred around these parts, but I have to say that I love this black and white conversion. Everything from the composition to the processing are all done extremely well, this definitely could hold its own in the SYS section

[mwanafunzi]

I like the black and white conversion, the framing and the crop. I especially like the crop because it really strengthens the whole pic.

The only thing, compositionally, that I think it might have been better, would have been if the cart was slightly smaller.

[Doug Sundseth]

First, I can't comment on my street cred. Discount as you think appropriate.

If you're trying for slightly creepy, your B&W conversion works well. The foreboding sky, the wind-blown trees, and the dark conversion work pretty well together.

If you're trying to get a more dust-bowl look, I think you might want to push up your midtones some.

It looks to me like you have a bit of a tilt to the right. Part of this is the shape of the hill in the background and part is the tree looming over the upper left corner, but the verticals (water pump and vertical edges of the buildings) also seem to be leaning to the right.

Other than that, I like your composition very much. You have a strong foreground that works well with the middle ground and the tree frames the scene well. I'd consider doing a bit of post to remove stray small branches near the upper corners of the photo to simplify the edges, but that's minor.

Nicely observed and captured.

[Krusty79]

The image is kind of dark. I don't know if you wanted that for the mood. I like the B&W, though. I do agree with Jim that I spend most of the time looking at the foreground and not the house in the background, as I find the foreground more interesting. If you had less of the tree, it would bring more attention to the house. Cool shot, though.

[kuul13]

I am just an amateur photographer and trying to learn from reading and visting posts in critique section.. I just wanted to let you know that the perspective of this frame is excellent.

I too feel the picture is little darker (everyone has their own taste) and I would loved to see the house in middle little exposed.

I am curios to know why did you use slow shutter speed of 1/25 and a high aperture of f/16.0? If I would have used this setting my pictures would have been blurry and unsharp. Couldn't I go for 1/125 and F/8 or something? May be you were using a tripod. Right?

[navcom]

Originally Posted by kuul13

I am curios to know why did you use slow shutter speed of 1/25 and a high aperture of f/16.0? If I would have used this setting my pictures would have been blurry and unsharp. Couldn't I go for 1/125 and F/8 or something? May be you were using a tripod. Right?

I'm sure he used a tripod. It's a must for landscapes. Also for landscapes, depth of field is important, and smaller apertures give deeper depth of field so more of the image is sharp. If he had used a wide aperture, either the foreground or the background would have been blurry. For the majority of landscapes, aperture choice is most important while shutter speed is irrelevant. His choice of settings looks spot on.