Aurora Australis

Dabbling with B&W conversion. Thoughts?

Thanks

Graham

Beautiful composition. I would add a tad more contrast.

Graham, I like the composition...the name of the ship (burned in a bit?) and the hull leading the eye to the ladder and, finally, to the human figure, which gives a wonderful sense of scale and perspective.  I personally like your B&W treatment (what software?).  I might be tempted to clone a bit of the one antenna off so that it isn't cut off by the top edge of the image, but that is pretty minor.  You might also try a version in which you crop away a bit more of the foreground.  Overall, though, very nice and very dramatic.  B&W conversions is something I am working on (in CS4) and I find myself drawn to B&W images more and more.  Well done!

Thanks Daniel & Emmanuel

Conversion performed using Lightroom 3.  In the original the ship is bright orange and the because of the overcast conditions the image looked quite flat. I liked the perspective on the ship and the solitary figure, but it didn't look particularly dramatic in colour.

The whole frame has been darkened by nearly 2 stops, and then the ship masked and lifted back up to about +0.25 - which is why the name is so prominent. I fiddled with the name thinking it was maybe too stark but in the end decided it was more dramatic and drew me into the picture. Was still unsure though - so glad you don't think it is too much.

Brightness & contrast increased across the frame and filtered blues/magenta up, red/yellow/orange/green down.

Agree re the antenna.

In the full size version the masking still needs some work.

Thanks for the comments. :)