Few B&W Plants

PixelRabbit · Sep 2, 2013

Pushed things a little further and was a little bolder with these, I'm going to keep my thoughts to myself but would love to hear yours

Thanks for taking a look!

1.

2.

3.

Demers18 · Sep 2, 2013

I like all three of them for different reasons, however the third one takes the cake. I like your processing. Nice work.

Maybe the only thing I would try is if you would crop #2 down a little as I find that the top section of the leaf feels like it doesn't belong and I find it takes you attention away from the rest of the image.

AngelosPhotography · Sep 2, 2013

I have to agree that the third one was the best one for me

Derrel · Sep 2, 2013

I must agree with Demers18--the third shot is the best. I have ALWAYS had a soft spot in my heart for blue-toned B&W images. I know a lot of people might not like them, but I really always have. I like the shot, but at the same time, wish it had just a little bit more room, a little bit more space in which to "breathe". It might look better with a slightly thinner border around it. This shot differs from the others in that it offers us a SINGULAR subject, clearly defined, with visual tranquility; the others show discord, and discontinuity.

The first shot has interesting tones, but the dark leaf creates a sort of hole in the shot, and draws my eye back into it. The berries...are hard to read...I think the lighting that's falling on this does not reveal the subject quite as ideally as it might when the image is rendered as a B&W. This shot is sort of a jumble of stuff in nature.

The second shot is okay I guess..but doesn't hold my interest too long. It has some interesting visual quirks, like the dark, crisp horizontal "crease" at the top, but the majority of the shot, like 90%, is out of focus leaves in four different depth planes. Visual tricvkery, visual gamesmanship I guess it could be called...fun to create such images at times I think, but this one has so little that's really in-focus that I don't feel like I'm getting much of a visual reward from looking at it. Now...if I were a lab rat...I might get a little drink of sugar-water if I looked at it for 10 seconds and pressed a foot bar, right?

I look at these shots as sort of exercises in seeing...they seem to be you, exploring the close-up world, and experimenting with a number of different ways of illustrating things with a camera.

PixelRabbit · Sep 2, 2013

Thanks so much everyone

I can get on board with the second one, I was on the fence on that one, worried that the extraneous leaves/shadows on the left were unnecessary and took away.

I'm REALLY glad you guys are liking the last one! That one is my favourite but I was very unsure about how the blue was going to be received, I chose blue because it is a purple flower and it lent so nicely to that conversion.

Derrel, exploring is a good way to describe it! Each time I do explore I find another element, light, line, concept to grow upon

PixelRabbit · Sep 2, 2013

Oh and Derrel, I do have a bit more room I can give #3, I will tinker later again.

PixelRabbit · Sep 2, 2013

Oh and here is the colour version of the berries, I converted to make the berries "pop" and TRY to simplify things, perhaps I went the wrong way?

deeky · Sep 2, 2013

2 is actually the one that grabbed me - and because of the solid horizontal line at the top. Being an organic subject, I was surprised by the relatively geometric element. I do think you could do a fair amount of cropping off the bottom. Perhaps as much as the bottom 2/3s of the image, giving it a landscape orientation and a much more abstract feel.

PixelRabbit · Sep 3, 2013

Thanks Deeky, that strong line in 2 is what drew me in to take this shot, I think I will play with it a bit but after reading the feedback on it paired with my initial thoughts I think "the" composition is a big crop and I'm trying to avoid that in my shooting so I'll use this one to learn and find more leaves

timor · Sep 3, 2013

And I am with others, #3 looks the best to me, but #1 is great to. On the other hand all of them are so different from each other... With subjects like #1 b&w film will be better than digital conversion. Will be easier to retain the detail in highlights.