Ghost Ranch

Hello Everyone!

Spent most of the day out at Ghost Ranch near Abiquiu, NM. Blustery day and lots of snow on the ground. The warm(er) temps made a slushy/muddy mess of the trail but we had a good time anyway. Wasn't much in the way of color so I decided to go B&W on these. Tell me what you think.

Cheers!

Very nice sky. I have been on a B&W kick lately.

Here's another..

I really like the first one, Phillip. I love the drama in the sky and the dominance of the monolith. I think I'd like to see the face of the monolith lightened just a tad to emphasize the detail there, which is great.

The second one is a little too high key for my tastes, but not much you can do with all that snow covered ground.

I agree with Kalin on the first. It's a good composition, but I think the conversion isn't quite 'there' yet. Darkening the blue sky a bit more might add some drama and detail to the clouds. Which conversion method are you using?

Looks like the monolith in the second suffers from wide angle distortion.

I like 'em both a lot! The tonal range is sweet.

I like 'em, Phil, though I do concur with the suggestions so far. The first one feels much more solid compositionally to me. The second looks like it could be a killer location in the right light.

The first one is a single frame and I had difficulty pulling the highlights down while not blocking up the shadows. I can lighten up the "Chimney Rock" (that's what its called) a bit. I did shoot several frames with different exposures but it was so windy, that some of the shots are a bit soft and don't line up well in Photomatix. Now that I've come back and looked again it does seem a bit flat. Maybe I'll futz with it some more tomorrow and post an update. Thanks for the suggestions!

The second shot was from high on top of the mesa (and way too close to the edge for me--I was pretty nervous--I don't do well with heights! ) and the wind was cold and howling. There is certainly some wide angle distortion but that gives this an "other-worldly" look. It looked other-worldly to me with all the snow on the ground! In fact, I was wishing I had a fish-eye lens as I think this scene would look really cool that way.

As far as B&W conversion technique.......well, ....uh....I have no technique! Well, actually, I get the image looking as good as I can in color, convert to B&W and then start moving all the sliders in Lightroom until I get what I like. Then I go to the top and do it again, and again...etc., until I'm happy with it. I guess you can call that a "technique". Key things are upping the contrast, messin' with curves, and adjusting each of the color sliders (especially blue for the sky). After doing all this I sometimes get some very interesting results messing with the temperature and tint sliders. Just play until you see something you like.

Just play until you see something you like.

Sounds like a pretty good technique to me!

I'm with John and Kalin, on #1. I love the comp. I don't know if you're using PS, but TK's luminosity masks would help you out with this.

Wow! I just looked at these photos on my work PC and they look like crap! I hope this isn't what they look like to you! On my (calibrated) monitor at home they look crisp, bright, sharp, nice contrast, etc. On this (non calibrated) monitor here at work they look dull, washed out, low contrast, dark, etc. Maybe my work LCD is a crappy one but now I'm starting to wonder what my images look like to the rest of you.

No need to worry, Phil.
They look just as you described the first time on my monitor.
Notice that there were no comments using the words 'dull, washed out, low contrast'.

I never comment on any images I view here on my computer at work for the same reason.

The first one is a nice shot, but for me, too alike so many others. Technically it is perfect imo. The second one with it's pov and it' distortion puts it over the top for me. I love it.
Morris