Sky and Adobe

Very well done. Simplicity, using only what's needed.

This is cool looking.

Comments, suggestions, ratings appreciated on this traditional b&w

shot of an adobe structure. I was trying out my new Voigtlander with

15mm Heliar. Developed, printed and toned in my home darkroom.

Comments especially about composition. I took some from several

angles. Thanks.

This looks great. Very nice B&W work.

Very well done. Can feel the texture of the Adobe and feel the sand particles in the wind. Groovin on the way the sky & clouds line up with the three corners of the Adobe tower.

Nice work!

Very Powerful. Love the simplicity.

Well done

Nice work all around. I was particularly interested in this shot because I just purchased the 15mm for my Leica M6. Can't wait to use it!

Simple and elegant. Well done.

The composition creates a very stable and powerful form. I'd like to see some of the others by comparison. Tonality is also vey nice.

The perspective distortion adds an interesting element to this fine image.

A beautiful image, Robert. I abandoned my darkroom almost a decade ago -- but nothing beats the thrill of seeing a great image like this gradually emerge in the developer for the first time. Magnificent.

I don't mean to rain on the parade, but unless this is a platinum print, the tonal range looks a little squashed on my monitor. As the image shows up on my screen, there is no pure white anywhere. Did you scan this on a Mac? Otherwise, I love the composition and mood of this image.

Very well seen and done!

good work, nice b&w shoot.

Nice work Robert. I agree with what Jim McNitt says. Watching something like this materialize through the developer must have been fun. Also, what Bill says about the tonal range. The plaster and the clouds are nearly mono-tonus, not monotonus, but all of one tone. I guess the illumination was overcast, or dusk with very weak to just below the horizon light? It's interesting this way, and tradition is tempting me, and Bill, too, maybe, to want to see this as stark white plaster, etc. So, some interesting choices going on here behind the scenes. The composition looks fine. I guess seeing the out-takes would help with further commenting on the comnposition. I wouldn't mind seeing the bottom of the tower in the foreground.

I want to thank all of you for your kind comments--during my trip to New Mexico I wanted to get one b&w adobe shot that I was relatively pleased with. This one worked pretty well for me.

 

Bill and Doug, I appreciate your keen critical eyes. While I don't know if I agree with a pedantic following of the idea that there must be white, I do agree there should be more tonal separation between sky and adobe should have been greater. I'll try another print, holding back the adobe and see what it looks like--it may indeed look better white. Also, Doug, your point about the base of the building is something that troubled me too. Unfortunately, there was some signage down there, which I excluded, but hacked off the building's base. Perhaps if I was more comfortable with PS (and more skilled), I just would have cloned/removed the sign digitally. Probably would have made for a better final product, though I'm not happy with technological solutions of that sort at this point.

 

Again, thanks for all the helpful comments.

It's a beautiful job, but I'm really missing the base of the building. I see it's already been an issue for you. How ugly can the sign be? Perhaps you could burn it into submission?

Great print looks almost like a platinum (sp?) contact print.

When I was writing my comment I noticed that you had a good black, and I was not in full agreement that you "needed" a white. I think the difficulty in this shot was the light and the tonal similarity between the adobe under this light, and the cloudy background. Some sort of camera filtering might have been useful, or not, I don't know. But I've seen many successful images that didn't have a significant white. The important thing is that you have separation between the clouds and the adobe. If your print were lighter overall, still holding that black in the windows, you would have the white some asethetics require, but you'd also have a different feeling. This image has mood. Printing lighter would elevate, maybe even erase the mood, but then the issue would be the separation between the bright values. I think you handled the scene pretty well, from what I can see, and printing it darker than expected brings in an element of emotion.

Terrific use of angle in combimnation with the sky.

Love the grain and the perspective

The textures of this image are superb Robert.Great composition,it makes me want to reach inside and rub my hand onthe wall.

I'm with your wife -- I like this Adobe shot better despite the missing base (it has a different, darker mood -- toning). Also, your other Adobe has too much of a wall sticking out in the foreground -- it probably has not been an easy task to find a clear angle for a fault proof shot, I suppose, and you did a splendid job under the circumstances. Simply awesome.