B&W from west Texas

T H O R · March 17, 2014

Some from a recent trip to Fort Davis. I gave a boost of contrast using Topaz clarity... A photoshop plugin.

Comments welcome.

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CatOne · March 17, 2014

They seem a bit dark to me. I think there's potential in these images and compositions, but as-is they don't do much for me. Specific comments I have on each image:

1) The sky is great and has lots of potential. However, the whole center of the image looks over-darkened. It's like there's a looming black blob over everything. It may be how the sky was (deep blue?) but in the B&W treatment it looks like you burned +1 stops of black into it. It really draws the eye to a dark area, which doesn't help. The windmill could be very interesting but the blades are black, and the water tank is has no detail - it's just solid black. I think though that this image has the most potential of the bunch.

2) There's no central subject. The clouds could be very interesting here with the cumulus as well as the wispy clouds. But the sky is just "there" and then you have the mountains in foreground at a fairly even balance without much justification for why it's there. Also the light foreground angling off the right side of the page is distracting and draws the eye out of the frame.

3) I like the mud flat in the foreground and the lightness of it really draws the eye into the frame. The problem though is that the sky and the mountains in the background are pretty much the same shade. They get blurred together. There is the white cloud there which delineates the two a bit, but it's a very small part of the picture. I'm drawn in nicely to the frame, but I get lost once I hit the middle. Again, this is a very dark frame; everything is from neutral gray on down, with the exception of the cloud which is a very small part of the frame.

I think there's potential here, but I'm not fond of the processing.