Monochrome doesn't get used enough to represent nature (zebras aside) so when I spotted this Guillemot in front of a black sea cave it screamed high contrast black and white at me!
Exposure was really tricky as you can imagine (especially as the sun was bright)but letting the dark cave really go black has helped.
1DS Mk2
500mm
ISO200
f5.6 1/125
Posted by Mike Andrews on June 24, 2009 at 4:58 AM
I should have pushed you while I had the chance.
Did you shoot in B&W or process it later? Love the shot, but I still think you are mad.
I like the idea, I really like the composition and the subject would seem eminently suitable for B/W but this image doesn't work for me as the Guillemots head just doesn't have enough separation from the background. It may well be that it suffers from being compressed and viewed small and I'd be quite ready to change my view but as seen in front of me now (on works monitor) it doesn't quite work.
Robert
a striking image and I like the idea. The slight difficulty I have with it is that it looks like the black background is sky (it's not obvious that it's a cave) and hence it looks like it was taken at night making the lighting on the bird and rock look a little strange. But that may be just me
Mark I absolutely applaud the imagination but for me the black abyss is a far too large and dominates the image. However the concept of monochrome wildlife images is worthy of a thread in itself I think.
Many Regards
JohnS
Posted by Mark Sisson on June 25, 2009 at 11:21 AM
Thanks for the comments on this - and glad to see it's provoked another thread and another monochrome image already!
On a good monitor and with a full size file, the Guillemot's head and background really are clearly differentiated - that's the problem of a 720 px compression on here but that's life.
In terms of the amount of the black space the clue to my thinking was in the title - I really liked the idea of the bird, isolated on the rock in the large black abyss of a cave. Doesn't work for all though I know.
Mike - this was processed as a high contrast B&W in capture One (my RAW conversion software) and nothing more. I'd never shoot in B&W as it might just be an image that'd work in colour too! That said I absolutely had monochrome in mind when I shot this one.
Discussion
12 repliesExposure was really tricky as you can imagine (especially as the sun was bright)but letting the dark cave really go black has helped.
1DS Mk2
500mm
ISO200
f5.6 1/125
Did you shoot in B&W or process it later? Love the shot, but I still think you are mad.
Robert
Matt
JohnR
No doubt at a bigger size it would do it more justice.
Major
Scott
Scott
cheers, Dennis
Many Regards
JohnS
On a good monitor and with a full size file, the Guillemot's head and background really are clearly differentiated - that's the problem of a 720 px compression on here but that's life.
In terms of the amount of the black space the clue to my thinking was in the title - I really liked the idea of the bird, isolated on the rock in the large black abyss of a cave. Doesn't work for all though I know.
Mike - this was processed as a high contrast B&W in capture One (my RAW conversion software) and nothing more. I'd never shoot in B&W as it might just be an image that'd work in colour too! That said I absolutely had monochrome in mind when I shot this one.
Mark
Edwin Kats