B&W Beginner

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  • 02-26-2004, 10:58 AM
    tgtaylor7
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    B&W Beginner
    Hi everyone,

    I'm new to B&W (and low-light photography) and would appreciate your constructive criticism and feedback. This shot of the San Francisco Bay Bridge was taken 2-weeks ago with a Toyo-View 45CF field camera using Fugi Acros.

    Thanks,

    Thomas
  • 02-26-2004, 05:04 PM
    Tiffany 13
    I think you have a classic and beautiful shot. I feel like the conrtast is a bit heavy, but after all it is a night shot. The contrast definitely works with the image. Only two things I would suggest: 1. When printing, try to burn in the area on the lower right side, the lights coming from the buildings on land. I think they serve only to distract you from bridge itself. and 2. on a very very minor point, I would suggest cropping out the left portion that is just black. Otherwise, it's great!
  • 02-26-2004, 05:25 PM
    CB Photo
    Looks good
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by tgtaylor7
    Hi everyone,

    I'm new to B&W (and low-light photography) and would appreciate your constructive criticism and feedback. This shot of the San Francisco Bay Bridge was taken 2-weeks ago with a Toyo-View 45CF field camera using Fugi Acros.

    Thanks,

    Thomas

    Thomas:
    I like the picture, I have shot some night photographs and it is not an easy task. It would have been a better shot if you had been able to give a little more detail to the far city lights, they have a haze look. But do not get me wrong, it is a good shot!!
  • 02-26-2004, 09:38 PM
    jeff_in_ak
    Thomas, I like this shot a lot. Fantastic work. I agree with Tiffany and CB on their suggestions.
    Very good picture. Hope to see more of your work.

    jeff
  • 02-27-2004, 01:30 AM
    tgtaylor7
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by Tiffany 13
    I think you have a classic and beautiful shot. I feel like the conrtast is a bit heavy, but after all it is a night shot. The contrast definitely works with the image. Only two things I would suggest: 1. When printing, try to burn in the area on the lower right side, the lights coming from the buildings on land. I think they serve only to distract you from bridge itself. and 2. on a very very minor point, I would suggest cropping out the left portion that is just black. Otherwise, it's great!
    Hi Tiffany,

    Thank you for your feed-back. I totally agree with your suggestions. and will certainly try them. Actually, I did crop some of the left side on the scan as this section of the bridge travels to Treasure Island ,which is unlit, and the reflection in the water ends close to where I croped. The lights on the right is the port of Oakland (the city of Oakland is just behind those lights) which is lit by high-intensity lights and are unavoidable. I'm new to the darkroom, digital or not, and don't have a printer as yet. But I'm going to try to tone down the Port on a scan.

    Thanks again for your feedback.

    Thomas
  • 02-27-2004, 01:38 AM
    tgtaylor7
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by CB Photo
    Thomas:
    I like the picture, I have shot some night photographs and it is not an easy task. It would have been a better shot if you had been able to give a little more detail to the far city lights, they have a haze look. But do not get me wrong, it is a good shot!!
    Hi Chris,

    Thank you for the feed-back. I totally agree. The lights on the right are from the port of Oakland (the city of Oakland is just back of them) which is lit by high-intensity lights and were unavoidable. Exposing for the bridge and reflection in the water overexposed the port! A graduated filter wouldn't have worked. I'm going to try toning them down in photoshop elements which I am new to.

    Thanks again for your feed-back.

    Thomas
  • 02-27-2004, 10:16 AM
    bingo pajama
    Thomas-
    first, let me say this is an incredible shot. very nice. i am not as distracted as the others by the city lights, but as Tiffany said, it is rather easy to burn in those lights- especially using PS. it will help to distinguish individual lights in the haze.
    anyway, great shot!
  • 02-29-2004, 08:41 AM
    mtbbrian
    Wow!
    Great image!
    You did a great job in capturing the bridge at night. You can see a lot of detail in the bridge.
    I for one am very glad to see that people are still shooting black and white with a view camera.
    I am sure you were out for quite a while shooting this image.

    My only suggestions would be to crop a bit of the water, it just seems to be a bit much.
    I really like how you framed it, using every inch of the film on the horizontal.
    Keep up the good work, and welcome to PR.com
    Brian
  • 02-29-2004, 11:47 AM
    iMacMike
    Fantastic
    This is a great shot. It looks a little grainy to my eyes, but that often happens with long exposures. I use as low an ISO as possible, 100 film and 50 digital, and set my aperture high (f8 or higher) for greater depth of field. The tricky part for shooting water reflections at night id there needs to be absolutely no wind, otherwise the water moves and blurs the reflection.

    All in all, I love your photo and there's not much I could do to improve it.
  • 02-29-2004, 11:09 PM
    gahspidy
    I think you have done a great job with this shot and could only suggest exactly as Tiffany has. Keep up the good work . . .
  • 03-01-2004, 04:13 PM
    PuckJunkey
    Excellent!
    My only question is about the image's "tilt". It is just an optical illusion perhaps, but to me it looks as if the bridge is slightly "leaning" towards you. However I notice the towers look more or less straight (maybe even leaning the other way a tad). I wonder if this is something you might be able to remedy in Photoshop via the Perspective correction tools?
  • 03-02-2004, 10:29 AM
    darkrainfall
    This is a beautiful shot... it makes me want to go out and shoot more black and white. I can only agree with Tiffany's suggestion... otherwise this shot is very nice. I would like to see any other pics you took in b&w.
  • 03-02-2004, 08:16 PM
    natatbeach
    see now, THIS is the type of photos I long to capture...beautiful shot. Peaceful but full of life...wow! little stuff has been mentioned so all that's left is to give you kudos for such an awesome capture.
  • 03-02-2004, 09:50 PM
    tgtaylor7
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by PuckJunkey
    My only question is about the image's "tilt". It is just an optical illusion perhaps, but to me it looks as if the bridge is slightly "leaning" towards you. However I notice the towers look more or less straight (maybe even leaning the other way a tad). I wonder if this is something you might be able to remedy in Photoshop via the Perspective correction tools?
    Hi PJ,

    Thanks for the reply.

    There may have been a slight movement in the Pacific and American plates (they are always moving in California), but I don't see any tilt in the photo. This shot was taken with a normal lens (150mm Rodenstock, Apo-Sirona-S) which has a 75-degree field of view (about the same as a 35mm lens on a 35mm camera). The front standard was tilted upwards, but both the front standard and back were level with the ground which would have produced no distortion in the perspective.

    Thomas
  • 03-03-2004, 04:55 PM
    bobbythebandit
    Powerful and all the rest has been said, welcome to the site and look forward to seeing more of your work.