One more

[henkbos]

One in B&W. Questions:
- crop the bushes?
- lighten the shadows (a tad)?

http://www.henkbos.com/web_pics/200305_eq067_bw.jpg

[Don Ellis]

Hi Henk,

The shadows are fine (for me, Mr. Shadows) but I'm not keen on the bushes. Cropping them is out of the question because you lose too much of the black shoulder that I like in the lower left.

I suppose they could be cloned out but I never do that much work for a photograph -- I expect what I take to be pretty close to what I end up with. But I noticed in another thread you're very good with Photoshop so it wouldn't be too difficult if that's what you wanted to do.

If you did go to that sort of trouble, I would also blur the far dune to bring the focus forward.

Don't know what else to offer but wanted to let you know that someone thought about it.

Cheers,

Don

[slejhamer]

Hmmm ... clone in a larger bush at bottom right? Lot of empty space in the right lower third ...

I agree with Don about the shadows - there is still some detail in them and they give a nice contrast to the bright highlights.

[henkbos]

Will give it a go. Will not clone in anything otherwise people start tho think that everything is fake or even recognize certain props :-)

[Leighow]

HENK

Last nite I spent 3 hours at an Ottawa camera club as a judge graded a dozen odd "set of five" B & W photos. Each set could have been done digitally and printed on an inkjet or in a darkroom on a variety of paper stocks. Furthermore competition definitions of B & W allowed for some tonal quality, and along this line one set was brownish and another blueish. The winner was tinted brown and each image in the set was of a garden rakehead, including a few inches of handle. This rake was leaning against a very sand-grainish surface. There was a great play of light and shadow effects.

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Henk I know zip about darkroom printing but I do remember a few things about the critique.
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The core message seemed to be that great B & W prints are take a lot of very hard work. Comments related to consistency within select five image sets. But the most common critique (if I recall correctlky!) related to the importance of burning an dodging to reveal detail and the importance of creating a full range of shades from black to white, and the need to tweak contrast -- here and there in selected images. Of course the comments were set against a review of 60 odd individual prints.

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Given that background, I am now looking over your image.
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1: It seems to me to be extremely well done.
2: My sense is that (on my monitor) the image tends to be a tad grey and might benefit from some stretching of contrast to introduce a little more black and a little more white.
3: In my own opinion, the little waves in the sand are super and convey a great sense of texture.
4: There may be more wavlets hidden in the black shadows, but that would seem to me to be normal.
5: Competitors at this gathering would have OK'ed some brown tinting

Well done.

HOWIE

[henkbos]

Thanks Howie and others.
This is just my first B&W straight out of the box with hardly any tuning. let alone some intricatre tuning of certain areas. I used the standard action of Fred Miranda and did a little on curves.
It seems however that I will end up with a serie that I want to make commercially available here in Dubai. Obviously each picture will need a lot more fine tuning.

Will post more as they come available.

Suggestions about prices are welcome. Am thinking to ask $150 for a poster size.

[eland]

Henk
Your image looks very good. Quality is good.
Have your thought of doing a pan or two or perhaps three images ?
There seems to be a continuation of interesting dunes particularly to the right. I feel that this image or one like it could be expanded.
That could make it more marketable too.

eland

[henkbos]

Thought about it, but wind was blowing and it ws hard enough to get a decent shot. Travelling in a group doesn't make it easier. Next time!