Perdido Key Fine Art

Perdido Key Sand Fence. Click image for larger view.

Comments welcome. Thank you, John

Phenomenal image, just outstanding, all from a bit of fence in a sand ridge!. Don't think a computer monitor does it justice, it would look amazing as a fine art print, certainly something I would buy just to hang on my wall.

Cheers

PDE

Glenn and Pierre, thanks for looking and taking the time to comment!

Many thanks Dimitris and Cary,

Dimitris, I did print the color version and entered it in the annual photography contest in my area. I got lucky and it won 1st place in the Open/Abstract Division. I wanted to see how the b/w version rated vs the color.
Curious if members like the color or b/w better? I'm usually partial to color, but lately having fun converting some images to b/w.
Gonna try to upload a copy of the color version. Here is the Pnet link to the color image. The quality may show up better at the link, then the uploaded version. http://photo.net/photodb/photo?photo_id=12771932

Another attempt to post actual image

Hi John,

a very powerful, graphic image you have created. I think this image begs to be in B&W. The color version looses its impact and emotion. So IMHO, keep it in B&W, it also begs to be printed, and perhaps a slight sepia tone, or sepia split tone in the highlights and keep the neutral or cool blacks. I'd love to see a version of that.

I am a big fan of vignettes, but I do a custom burn in around the image, sometimes subtle and sometimes not so subtle, depends on what the photo needs/wants. And I generally do not make the vignette symmetric, its highly dependent on the image and shape of the subject, etc. So if this were my image, I would do a very slight vignette just on the left and lower left to slightly bring down the lighter tones, help close off the photo slightly. The way I like to visualize it is to view the photo in lightroom at a very small size, so it appears as I would see it hanging on a wall 10 or 15 feet away. Just a thought...

I like the way the highlight tones have a subtle fall off to the right, in back of the fence, gives a good feeling of depth to the photo. This image has the "dang factor".... What's that you ask?  "dang, I wish I would have taken that"!

Well done!

Ron

Its a great imagine anyway you look at it, its great in color and great in B/W, a worthy winner of any contest. However I agree in B/W it's just a bit more special, a bit more abstract, flowing artistry.  

You didn't get lucky is a great photo....:-).

Congratulations on your win John !.

Ron and Glenn, thanks for taking the time to compare the B/W and Color version, plus your helpful comments and kind words. I’m gonna have to do a B/W print. Ron, thanks for mentioning sepia split tone. First time I ever heard of it, so I did a quick search. Very interesting. 
I have played with vignettes a little in the past, but my results were not worth saving.
Dimitris, thanks again!

You all helped boost my confidence level. I needed that, since I have been in one of those photographer slumps lately:)

John,

you're welcome! If you look at my portfolio, the photo "Sunset Silos" you will see an example of split toning. In this image the highlights have a sepia/warm tone while the dark tones are a colder blue. This image was processed in Lightroom where you have the ability to split tone easily, selecting the toning hue (or hues for split), the amount of saturation for the hue(s). You can also set the tonal point where the split occurs. 

My comments assume you use lightroom, but the same effects can be done in photoshop or other software. Play with it and have fun!

Ron

Ron, sorry about my slow reply. I have not been on the site for a couple of months. The split toning was interesting, but the "tree on hill-1" image instantly grabbed my attention. Definitely worthy of a competition.