"Geared"

[LL III]

A walk in the woods brought my to a small dam. The picture is the geared mechanism that controls the gate. Not too sure it would work if it had to.

Anyway, I took a number of photos and wanted to create a B&W version, picking up an industrial feel.

Questions:

General thoughts on the composition? DOF? I personally like the shallower DOF.

Next, what techniques do you utilize to create a digital B&W?



Camera Model Canon EOS DIGITAL REBEL XT
Shooting Mode Aperture-Priority AE
Tv( Shutter Speed ) 1/200
Av( Aperture Value ) 2.8
Metering Mode Partial Metering
Exposure Compensation 0
ISO Speed 200
Lens 70.0 - 200.0 mm
Focal Length 70.0 mm
Flash Off
White Balance Mode Cloudy
AF Mode AI Servo AF
Noise Reduction Off

[Chip]

I like this photo. It's uncluttered with a nice, uniform background. The shallow DOF fits this shot well.

On the composition, and this is just my opinion, but maybe a shot taken from more of a "straight on" angle (a little bit to the left) would be helpful? For some reason, I'd like to see all of the large bolt in the background, and moving to the left would help with this.

For B&W conversion, I still have a lot to learn. But, I think most people use either channel mixer or something similar.

[SuperDan]

I think that the DOF works great on this.

Nice tones and feel overall.