bw bikes

[typicalteen]

hello, this was taken with my canon elan 7n and a 70-200mm f/4 lens. i dont know the shutterspeed or aperture sorry. the film is Tmax 400 BW. It was scanned on a bad flatbed which explains the poor quality.
some questions:
1) would the image work better flipped horizontally?
2) how is the composition and exposure?
3) Is the reflector on the wheel on the bottom of the image distracting?
4) Is the gap in the bikes distracting?
5) The first bike (point of focus) is grey while the next few are white. Does this take away from the image?

im looking for serious critique, please be brutal and honest.

if anyone can tell me how to get the image to show up directly it would be nice

thanks in advance and feel free to edit it yourself and post


P.S. can someone please link to an article on how to convert images to bw from color using the channel mixer?

 

[Chase]

The URL doesn't work for me, sorry.

 

[eydryan]

ok, then. brutal and honest.

ok, so about the quality of the scan it's ok and anyway the way i've printed it it's not that visible.now about your questions:

1.a horizontal crop would probably not work because you are trying to catch the idea of the row of bikes. however,i cannot know what is above the bikes, if it complements them and rotating the frame would work. but like this i think is best. it is a little too tight for me but 's ok.

2.composition is ok, however as i said above, i'd like a less tigh crop, i mean the photo starts nowhere, it's not one bike the the next nd so on, it's a small piece of something and then a lot of the same thing, it's confusing to the eye due to the number of elements. cluttered is the term. exposure is ok.

3.nope, didn't even see it. the one i did see is the one on the right on the handlebars. but 's ok. they are bikes.

4.without that gap it would be impossible to look at it... as i said, cluttered is the word.

5.it is normal for them to have diferent colours and that doesn't really matter. however if you could have only started with the three white bikes it would have been more interesting.

Channel mixer:
you tick the little monochrome checkbox and the play with the RGB skliders watching what happens. however, you must have a total value of 100, no more no less in order to convert it correctly. what i mean and usual values below:
(1)R:33 G:33 B:34
(2)R:50 G:25 B:25
(3)sorry i just can't remeber anymore, well just fiddle with them as long as total is (aprox) 100.

 

[kilifila66]

Ok here goes
1) I think a change of the crop would'nt help this photo. You can mess around with it and see if you like any of them.
2) I like the composition here. You did a good job getting the subject set up and lining up the shot. I like the effect you captured here as well. The exposure looks good, but if you can throw it in PS and play with the lvls and curves to maybe get some more contrast.
3) I find it a little distracting, although it does'nt really hurt the shot THAT much. Try cloning it out if you can.
4) The gap is not distracting, in fact it adds something to your shot IMO. I think it gives you more focus on the primary group while still giving a sense of depth.
5) Not really, I don't find the first being gray a problem. If anything it gives a kind of contrasting buffer to the other bikes.

I like this shot, and I think you have done really well. You gave it some very nice depth.